Adventures of Super SEAL
by Qweb
Summary: An exploration of Super SEAL's superpowers. Humor, friendship, action, adventure - you get it all with Steve McGarrett. No spoilers, but there's probably some swearing.
1. Super SEAL and the Frozen Potatoes

_I'd forgotten this story idea until I ran across a scribble in my notebook underneath a grocery list, "This time, actually for potatoes." I think I woke up from a dream with that line in my mind. This is the story that resulted. I don't know if there will be more chapters, now that Steve has invaded Danny's space in my head. I'll leave it open._

**Super SEAL and the Frozen Potatoes**

Searching for evidence, Steve McGarrett had just opened the upper compartment of the refrigerator/freezer when he heard a yell from his partner in the basement.

Footsteps pounded up the basement stairs and the drug dealing homeowner burst into the kitchen, a wicked hunting knife in his hand. Steve's hands were occupied, with a bag of frozen food in each hand.

Steve saw the tip of the knife was discolored with blood. His blue eyes grew as cold as the ice cube tray.

The drug dealer lunged. Steve blocked with his left hand and the knife plunged deeply into a bag of frozen peas. As little globes of green dribbled musically to the linoleum, the SEAL swept the knife hand aside and swung the bag of Tater Tots in his right hand, wielding it with flips of the wrist like loose and flopping nunchuks. The frozen nuggets impacted solidly with the suspect's temples, left, right and then, with a full roundhouse swing, the left temple again. The man staggered, slipped on the peas and fell headlong at the feet of Danny Williams, standing in the doorway.

Seeing Danny had just a small, red-stained cut on his shirtsleeve, Steve's eyes defrosted. He dropped the potatoes and — deliberately — took a solidly frozen turkey leg from the freezer and clubbed the drug dealer unconscious.

Steve stood over his fallen foe, letting the tension drain away.

"Geez!" Danny said, impressed. "You must have been hell in high school food fights."

Danny rolled the suspect over, mashing his face in the thawing peas, and handcuffed him. The man's eyes fluttered. "What hit me?" he moaned.

"Everything but the kitchen sink," Danny answered, hauling the suspect to his feet.

"I thought the place was clear," Steve said angrily.

"So HPD said," Danny agreed. "He had a hidey hole in the basement. Secret door and everything. But I found it, unfortunately for him — and me." He glanced at the cut on his forearm.

"You OK?"

"It's just a scratch, but I just bought this shirt," Danny complained.

"If you wore short sleeves …"

Danny waved the familiar advice away. Short sleeve shirts looked stupid with a tie and the tie stayed.

Steve chuckled, "Book him, Danno. Then come over to my place for dinner." He surveyed the food on the floor. "For some reason I'm hungry."

— H50 —

By the time Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua arrived, Steve had made a grocery run and had turkey breasts sizzling on the grill and peas simmering on the stove. And in the oven … "Tater Tots?" Kono questioned, peering inside the oven. The childhood favorites didn't seem like Super SEAL health food.

"I had a craving," Steve said with a shrug.

Danny stored the bag with the remaining Tater Tots in Steve's freezer. "Yeah, this time he wanted them just for the potatoes."


	2. A Single Bound

**The Adventures of Super SEAL**

**A Single Bound**

Five-0 and HPD were about to raid an isolated cabin when Danny Williams saw their prime quarry making a break for it out a side door.

"Milani's heading toward the jungle," the detective barked. He leaped up, took two steps and just passed the corner of the cabin when all hell broke loose. More gunmen than you expected could fit in the small building burst from doors and windows like bozos popping from a circus clown car.

About to follow his partner, Steve McGarrett had to throw himself back into cover, as half a dozen weapons opened up on his position. So nice to be appreciated, he thought sardonically.

More shots from the rear of the house occupied the backup SWAT team.

"Steve!" Danny paused.

"Go, Danny, go!" Steve urged. "I'm good. Don't let the bastard get away!"

Chin Ho Kelly could often read his Jersey friend's mind. He knew Danny hated to run out on his partner. "We've got his back, Danny. Go!" he said, as he and Kono Kalakaua moved to flank Steve's attackers.

"Yeah, but who's got mine?" Danny grumbled, even as he moved without hesitation to follow Milani and his chief lieutenant, Connolly.

"We'll be right behind you," Steve said optimistically, facing six — he fired — now five, opponents.

The Five-0 teammates heard shots from the direction their Jersey friend had gone.

"Danny?" Kono asked through the communications gear.

"I'm good," Danny growled. "Just peachy. Milani is going into the friggin' jungle. I'm on his six."

— H50 —

For a few minutes, the others were too busy to follow up, but the first blast from Chin's shotgun cleared a path for Steve and the threat of more blasts persuaded the gunmen to surrender. There's nothing like a shotgun for making a convincing argument, Chin thought fondly.

It took five minutes — ten tops — before the weight of police numbers overcame the surprise of the gunmen's attack.

But in five minutes, Danny had vanished into the jungle pursuing Milani and his Number 2.

They were the ones Five-0 wanted. They were the ones who had kidnapped two little girls, tortured them to keep their father in line, and held them prisoner for three years. They were the ones Danny wanted so badly, he'd pursue them alone into the jungle, violating his own principles about the importance of backup and his city-bred wariness of jungles. Even Danny would admit that hot pursuit had its own rules.

— H50 —

Steve touched his earpiece. "Danny, where are you?"

"I'm chasing Milani through the jungle. Where are you? You're supposed to be backing me up!" Danny answered in a forceful whisper, as he crept, step by careful step, between the trees listening for his quarry.

"I'm trying, but I need to know where you are," Steve protested.

"It's the freaking jungle, Steven! There are no street signs and the native inhabitants have feathers and don't seem to parley voo English!"

"Hang on." Steve gestured at Kono and Chin. "Spread out, find where he went into the jungle. There should be some sign."

Just a moment later, Kono sang out, "Found it!"

Steve jogged in her direction. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, pretty sure, boss." Kono gestured at the corpse almost hidden by the long grass. It was Connolly. "Danny left a marker for us."

The ground was damp here and Steve could plainly see footprints, Danny's dress shoes following bigger hiking boots.

Steve tapped his mike. "OK, we're coming partner."

"Good, because … You, Milani, freeze! Don't. Don't!" Danny warned.

Steve heard shots, through his earpiece and through the air. Then through the com he heard a grunt and "Shit!" Then silence.

"Danny! Danny!" he called frantically, but there was no answer. Steve cursed and darted back to his truck. He grabbed a backpack from the backseat, his hiking gear with the extra large first aid kit Danny had forced on him after the trip to the petroglyphs.

"Any chance we can track him with the GPS in his phone?" Steve asked, though he knew it was a forlorn hope.

Chin shook his head. "He turned it off for the raid, so it couldn't distract him. I saw him do it myself." Chin had done the same thing, but he turned his on now. Steve and Kono did the same, just in case Danny had a broken com but a working phone.

Kono tried calling, but it went straight to Danny's voicemail.

— H50 —

"OK," Steve said, taking a deep breath to calm himself. He was an expert tracker. He couldn't let fear addle his skills when his best friend was in danger. "OK, we start with Danny's trail marker."

Standing beside the body, he could see where people had crashed through the tall grass and bushes. There was no sneaking here. Even Kono could see it and she'd never done any tracking.

Just within the tree line, where the brush had withered in the shade, Steve found footprints in a damp patch of ground. The marks of Danny's dress shoes overlaid the larger boot prints.

"Danny's following one man here," Steve pointed out the marks to his friends. "They're both still moving fast, judging by the depth of the toe."

Not far inside the grove of trees, the trail grew less obvious. The ground grew drier, but scuffed leaves, rocks kicked aside and broken twigs marked a path for Steve to follow. It didn't travel straight. It quickly became two separate paths, weaving in and out of the trees.

Kono shivered with fear for her Jersey friend. "They're stalking each other," she said in a low voice. The Five-0 team didn't know whether Milani was still around. Kono and Chin had their weapons out, watching Steve's back as he studied the ground.

As the ground grew harder and Danny and Milani slowed their murderous minuet, Steve had to call on all his hard won skill to follow; but a green leaf with a bruised edge, a bent blade of grass and a compressed patch of dirt just beginning to crumble at the edges led him on.

He was focused on the details, but didn't lose sight of the big picture.

"It's getting lighter up ahead," Chin commented.

"I see," Steve answered. "Looks like they headed that way."

There was a scuffmark in the packed dirt, an ill-defined footprint, smaller than Steve's foot when he compared the two.

"Danny," Kono said.

"Yeah." Steve scratched his head, trying to make sense of the jumble of tiny clues. Sometimes you had to use your detective instincts to see the pattern. Steve didn't have Danny's instincts, but he knew his partner. "I think, when Danny saw the light, he went that way to cut Milani off."

Kono instantly trotted that way, moving with a silent tread, gun ready; then forfeiting stealth to call out, "Blood!"

The men joined her instantly. Blood had splashed on the ground and spattered on a nearby tree.

"Bullet," Chin pointed to a gouge in the bark; then he pounced and brought up a gun.

"Looks like Danny's," Kono said fearfully.

Chin cleared it and checked the clip. "Still four rounds."

Steve had continued toward the light, where the bushes grew thicker again and a bent and splintered gap was apparent. Heart in his mouth, he pushed forward and stopped on the brink of a cliff. A small cliff, really just a man-high bluff, dropped to a steep, brush-covered slope where two bodies lay.

"Here," he called in a choked voice that didn't sound like his at all. He swallowed and called louder, "Danny! Danny!" but the man below didn't move.

Buoyed by bushes, Danny sprawled on his back, eyes closed, arms loosely spread on either side. The angle of the sun let them see a blotch of red on Danny's Kevlar vest. They were called bulletproof vests, but the officers knew that some bullets laughed at them.

Beyond him, farther downhill, Milani lay face down blood visible on his back.

"I need to get down there," Steve said, pulling rope out of his pack. A blanket came out with the rope, and he stuffed it carelessly back inside.

Kono was already dialing emergency services.

— H50 —

Steve and Chin fastened the rope to a sturdy tree, then the SEAL rappelled down the steep hill to Danny's left, so he wouldn't kick rocks or dirt down on his friend. When he reached Danny's level, he began his traverse, but was hindered by a rock outcropping that was hidden from above. Using the leverage of the line, Steve bounded up to the outcropping then swung over to Danny.

The detective's eyes opened to see Steve swooping down on him, the tail of a blue blanket fluttering behind him.

"'S a bird, 's a plane. It's Super SEAL," the dazed man declared, as Steve bounced to a halt beside him.

The commander was glad to see his friend's eyes open, but was alarmed by their glazed appearance and Danny's semi-coherent muttering.

He checked for a pulse on the gunman and found nothing but a through-and-through hole in the dead man's chest. Ignoring the corpse, Steve crouched beside Danny.

"When'd you get a cape?" Danny asked.

Following Danny's dazed gaze, Steve looked over his shoulder to see the blanket half out of the backpack. He pulled it all the way out and covered his injured friend, glad to see the blood on Danny was just transfer from Milani.

"It's just a blanket, see?" Steve gripped Danny's chin, careful not to jar the detective's head. "Are you with me, Danny?"

The victim's eyes blinked, then focused. "Steve?" he said uncertainly.

"Yes. Are you with me, now?"

"I don't … were you flying?"

"Rappelling." Steve yanked at the rope to show his friend. "See, rope. I was rappelling, not flying."

"Good. Because if I found out about your superpowers, you'd probably have to kill me." Steve started to get worried again, but then he realized Danny was laughing.

"Don't scare me like that, partner," Steve protested. "How do you feel?"

"I've got a bitch of a headache," Danny answered.

"Don't move. The rescue team is coming."

"What happened to Milani? I shot him, but he kept coming. Took me off the cliff."

Steve glanced down the hill. "He didn't get far," he said. "Don't worry about him. He's the ME's problem now. You're lucky these bushes broke your fall."

"Better not to fall at all," Danny corrected, closing his eyes. "Damn jungle."

Steve hovered close by, but the fire department rescue crew and Emergency Medical Services did most of the work, hauling Danny up the slope and taking him to the hospital, which decided to keep him for a day or two because of the concussion.

— H50 —

The bandage around her father's head worried Grace, but Danny's chatter put her at ease again. He started telling her an increasingly preposterous story about how Steve rescued him. "Didn't I mention?" he'd begin, making Grace giggle — and Kono snicker and Chin grin.

When Steve arrived, Grace tackled him in the hallway, thanking him for saving her father.

"I didn't do much," the SEAL said modestly, returning her hug.

"You found Daddy when he was lost in the trackless jungle," Grace said.

"That's true … wait, trackless?" the clueless commander said, as Kono tried unsuccessfully to smother her giggles.

Grace, who had a poker face as good as her father's, beamed up at Steve. She swooped her hand in an evocative gesture worthy of her parent. "And then you flew off the cliff to save him."

"Flew? There was a rope, Grace. Danny, what are you telling your daughter?" Steve demanded, believing that Grace really thought he'd flown. He strode into the room. The girl covered her broad smile with both hands and ran to her Dad.

"He has to say that," Danny told her, deadpan.

Grace nodded and deadpanned back, "To protect his secret identity."

Now Steve understood that the Williamses were putting him on. He was relieved. He'd been afraid his brain-injured partner really believed he could fly. Steve relaxed against the wall and crossed his arms.

"I don't know why you're talking about me flying," he said. "You're the one who took a header off a cliff without a parachute."

Danny gestured agreement and touched his forehead, remembering the frightening plunge backwards off the cliff. "A feat I am not eager to repeat," he admitted. "I landed on my head," he confessed to his daughter. "Uncle Steve is much better at flying than I am."

"That's why he's Super SEAL," Grace stage whispered.

"That's why," her father whispered back.

**The End**

_Author's note: Super SEAL has definitely invaded Danny's space in my head. Danny told me, "OK, whatever. As long as it keeps you from buggin' me." Then he found out about the cliff. "Wait. A pinprick with a knife, OK, but throwing me off a cliff? Just so Steve can rescue me? Listen lady, I'm not Lois Lane, OK? I don't need to be rescued every issue of Action Comics!" And so on. Believe me, a Danny rant in a car is nothing next to a Danny rant in my head. So to make peace, I promised him something nice in the next chapter of "A Little Bit of Danny." And he's going to hold me to it._


	3. Leaping Tall Buildings

**The Adventures of Super SEAL**

**Leaping Tall Buildings**

With a snap of the bolt cutters, Danny cut the chain holding the banquet room doors shut. He pulled aside the bodies of the two guards felled first by a flash bang grenade and then by Chin's shotgun butt and Kono's roundhouse kick.

Now Chin was busy disabling the elevators while Kono — the least threatening of the trio — pulled open the doors.

Alarmed by the flash bang, the hostages cowered back against the wall. Three brave men and two fierce moms stood in front of the children who were embraced in the arms of their grandparents.

"Police," Kono announced, flashing her badge. "We have to hurry. The rest of the terrorists will be here in a second. Into the elevator, quick."

One of the men swept his mother away from her walker and carried her out the door, the rest of his family following at a run. Chin held one elevator open, gesturing at the escapees. Danny and Kono shepherded the civilians out. After a quick glance around to make sure no one was left behind, Danny ran for the elevator, bringing up the rear.

A cry of anger echoed behind him. Chin's shotgun pointed his way. Danny didn't need his friend's shout to fling himself to the floor, sliding as if diving for second base, as the shotgun cleared the hall behind him.

Kono hauled Danny and his bolt cutters into the crowded elevator and hit the 4 button. Chin sprang backwards as the doors started to shut. The elevator started up.

"Up?" one woman questioned.

"We can't go out the front," Danny explained. "Too many baddies."

"We can't go out the way you came in?" asked the man holding his mother.

"No, we came in slow and sneaky, through the service tunnels," Chin answered. "We can't go out that way with 14 people when they're hot on our tails."

"I hope you've got a plan," a woman said.

Kono smiled, admiring this courageous family caught by chance when a group of wannabe terrorists burst in on their reunion.

"Better. We've got backup," Danny said.

The elevator doors opened at the fourth floor, the atrium courtyard with restaurants and a lounge under a glass ceiling that showed stars twinkling in the clear Hawaiian night.

Ushering everyone out, Danny dropped the bolt cutters so they'd keep the door from closing.

Everyone ran to the other side of the enormous room, as far from the elevators as the Five-0 team could get them.

"Barricade yourselves in the corner," Kono ordered, pushing at a cushy white couch. Willing hands rushed to help her, while others carried sturdy tables from the nearest restaurant. In moments, they had a lair in the corner, fronted by three couches and a barricade of overlapping tables.

Chin and Danny ran the perimeter, blocking every other entrance and putting obstacles in front of the stairwell. They heard footsteps clattering up the stairway.

"Time's up," Danny said, as he and Chin headed for cover, vaulting over the barricades.

"Everybody down," Chin warned. The three Five-0 officers remained standing, watching the stairwell.

Because he was a verbal sort, Danny said into his com unit, "We're in position and they're hot on our trail."

Because he wasn't, Steve McGarrett replied with a double-click acknowledgement.

Danny sighed. "There's no one up there, but our people. Would it kill you to say, 'In position, Danny, waiting your signal'? Or just give me a Neanderthal grunt?"

Danny could hear laughter in the grunt that was his response.

Even as he rehearsed a rant in his mind, Danny pressed the others back gestured the others down and ordered them to cover their heads.

"What?" one confused man asked.

Danny saw the stairway door open.

"Now, Steve!"

Gazing at the glass ceiling, one of the children gasped. Danny glanced up. Dark figures descended dramatically out of the night.

"Cover your heads!" Danny shouted.

The terrorists burst from the stairwell, running toward the hostages on the far side of the room. The strike team dropped, weights on poles preceding them to smash the atrium's glass roof. The safety glass disintegrated, falling like wicked hail on the terrorists below.

Screams came from below as the terrorists were caught in a slicing rain of crystalline shards — even safety glass can cut. Screams came, too, from the hostages, frightened by the sudden crash of sound.

Steve fired even before his feet touched down, his semi-automatic barking at a man who was aiming at the hostages. Parents hid their children's faces as bodies began to fall.

Led by McGarrett, the strike team landed on the floor with a thump, glass crunching under their booted feet.

From out of the rain of glass four dark avengers rose, led by the darkest of all. The tall man dressed in camouflage black seemed like an alien, with glistening goggly eyes and knee-high combat boots.

Steve flicked his rope aside and charged into the terrorists who were confused by the rain of glass and frightened by the demonic aspect of their attackers.

Steve struck with a police baton and kicked with his sturdy boots, bringing suspects down and letting the strike team follow with handcuffs.

At the back of the group was the terrorists' charismatic, wild-eyed leader, who preached that a new world could only be born from the blood of innocents. Seeing his own judgment approaching, he turned in fear and ran for the stairs. Steve leaped in pursuit, knocking aside one teenage boy who dived to protect his master.

The Navy SEAL ran up on a table and launched himself at the leader.

Crouching behind the barrier, Danny sighed and shook his head as the 6-1 Five-0 leader hurtled into the bearded nutcase. The two men tumbled to the ground. With more agility than expected, the leader gained his feet and lunged at Steve with a knife.

Steve dodged back and to the side, kicking the back of the leader's knee as he passed. The man's leg buckled and Steve pounced on him, driving his forehead into the floor and then repeating twice more until the terrorist lay unconscious and twitching on the parquet floor.

A quick glance from the goggled eyes showed the rest of the suspects under control. Steve stood and sauntered toward his team who still stood guard over the hostages.

Everything under control, Steve sauntered over to his team. The alarmed hostages cowered from this deadly dark figure. Despite the balmy Hawaiian night now wafting through the no-longer-enclosed space, Steve was covered head to toe as protection from the glass. A black ski mask covered his head — and where had he gotten that, in Hawaii, Danny wondered, studying his own reflection in the mirrored goggles that shielded Steve's eyes. "I see why you only grunted," the Jerseyan said.

"Nice entrance, boss," Kono said with a grin, feeling the hostages relax at her casual greeting.

"Yeah, love what you've done with the place," Chin said, shaking his head at the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of broken glass.

Backed against Danny's knees, a 6-year-old boy stared wide-eyed at their rescuer.

"Are you a ninja," he breathed.

Steve pulled up the goggles and pulled off the ski mask, revealing the sweet smile that made women melt.

"Even better," Danny told the boy. "He's a Navy SEAL."

"Super SEAL, leaping tall buildings," Kono joked.

"Down," Danny pointed out. "Leaping down, Kono. Down's the easy part. Any brick can do down."

Steve laughed. "Don't I get any points for style?"

Danny remembered the dramatic dark descent. "Oh yeah," he conceded. "Gotta give you points for style."


	4. Heated Gaze

**Heated Gaze**

When Detective Danny Williams dragged the suspect into the interrogation room, Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett was already seated at a table there. Steve's frowning gaze locked on the young Hispanic and followed him like a targeting laser.

Emilio Chavez flinched back against the short but powerful detective.

"What's he looking at?" Chavez whispered to Danny.

"A drug trafficker. He hates drug traffickers," Danny answered, casting a nervous glance of his own at his glowering partner.

"I'm just a dealer, man. Not a trafficker. I'm not important enough to be a trafficker," Chavez said nervously.

"But you know things, Emilio," Danny said. "You know where we can find Rivera."

Chavez shook his head emphatically. "No. I can't. He'll kill me."

Steve growled, a wordless snarl that made Chavez cringe. "You've got ten minutes," Steve said. The Five-0 commander pulled a small, lime green Bic lighter out of his pocket. He flicked it and looked slowly from the flame to the drug dealer. Steve smiled nastily. "Ten minutes," he repeated.

Chavez whimpered. "Please, man," he begged Danny, who was eying his silent partner warily.

"Steve."

Steve just flicked the lighter again.

Danny turned back to Chavez. "Look, I'm sorry. I can't control him," Danny apologized. "He's the boss."

"Man, I've heard about you Five-0 guys. You dangle people off buildings and throw them to the sharks."

The shark story had grown in the telling, Danny thought. "We got the shark guy back," Danny assured the drug dealer. "Well, most of him," the detective added thoughtfully.

"Don't worry. No water for you," Steve said cheerfully, flicking the lighter again and admiring the flame. "Nine minutes."

"Emilio. Just tell us about Rivera," Danny said.

"No, no, no," the man stuttered, his eyes never leaving Steve.

"If you won't do it for yourself, think of me," Danny begged.

"Huh?" Chavez couldn't believe his ears.

"It's such a bitch to clean blood off the walls and the smell of burned flesh …" Danny shuddered. "… you can't ever get it out of the carpet. Please, I'm begging you, for your own good. Tell us what we want to know."

"Five minutes!" Steve announced.

"Five! It can't be five!"

Steve's blazing glare scorched the dealer who hunched his shoulders defensively. Steve fished in his pocket and brought out another lighter, a sturdy, classic, well-used Zippo lighter emblazoned with an anchor.

Steve flicked it and a bigger flame blazed up. The SEAL smiled at it. He set it carefully on the table, still blazing. He rested his chin on his hand on the table and looked past the flame at Chavez, as if he could imagine the man burning.

"Four minutes!"

"Rivera!" Danny demanded.

Chavez shook his head, but his fearful eyes were on McGarrett and his flame.

"Three-two-one!" Steve announced all in one breath. He snapped the Zippo shut, then stood.

"No!" Chavez squawked. "Rivera is in Hilo!"

"Too late," Steve growled, his angry gaze burning holes in Chavez' soul.

"He'll be back this afternoon, at his warehouse," Chavez gabbled out the address. "Two p.m., he wants all his dealers there for a meeting. He likes to play chairman of the board. You can take out the whole ring!"

Steve acted like he hadn't heard, his focused gaze was incendiary and his smile was insane. "Too late, Emilio. Your ten minutes was up!" He spun the wheel on the Zippo and the flame lit.

Chavez squealed.

Danny blocked his partner. Hands on Steve's chest, he backed the commander toward the door. "That's enough, Steve. He's talking."

"But his time was up!" Steve whined.

"It wasn't ten minutes. It was only nine," Danny said firmly. He opened the door and forced Steve out.

"It was ten!"

Pushing his partner outside, Danny slammed the door behind them. Leaning his head against his friend's shoulder, Danny shook with suppressed mirth. The detective bit his shirtsleeve clad arm to choke off the inappropriate guffaws that might give their game away. Steve covered his own mouth to prevent his laughter from escaping. He flicked the lighter again. The men's eyes met and they both trembled, valiantly battling the desire to laugh out loud.

"Stop it, you firebug!" Danny ordered in a strangled whisper. "You're killing me!"

Inside the room, a wide-eyed Chavez listened to the stifled sounds and wondered if the crazy commander was killing his smaller friend.

When Danny returned, smoothing his rumpled hair, Chavez assumed his red face and watering eyes were the result of combat, not semi-hysterical laughter.

"OK, I think I have him convinced," Danny said hoarsely. "But you'd better give me all the details."

Chavez did, and thanked the detective repeatedly while he did so. When he had all the information down, Danny took Chavez to a more comfortable holding cell until Five-0 could arrange the raid on Rivera's operation.

Steve lounged in the hallway. As they passed him, Steve lit the Zippo once more and held it up, following Chavez with the flame as if it was a rifle sight. Chavez went willingly — eagerly — with Danny, promising to keep his mouth shut.

When Danny returned to Five-0 headquarters, Steve was recounting the story to Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua.

"I can't believe he fell for that!" Chin laughed.

"You didn't see the madman McGarrett act. It was too convincing," Danny said. "Superman could set things on fire with his X-ray vision. With Steve's heated gaze, Super SEAL burned up all Emilio's resistance."

"Hot stuff!" Kono exclaimed.


	5. Super SEAL and the JLH

**Super SEAL and the JLH**

Detective Danny Williams thought that the dimpled, blue plastic surface of the low bench where he sat was as hard on his behind as if it hadn't been padded at all.

Obviously designed by an experienced torturer, the bench was just too wide for him to lean back comfortably against the wall. The sharp, stitched edge cut off the circulation in his thighs and one of the buttons had come loose and poked sharply into one of his buttocks. His back hurt, his butt hurt and his legs were going numb, but if he sat in a chair, his daughter couldn't lean against him for the comfort she so obviously needed today. And, he confessed to himself, he needed it, too.

So he sat on the uncomfortable bench that had room for two.

"Daddy, will you tell me a Super SEAL story?" Grace asked in a subdued voice.

Super SEAL, Danny thought with a pang. He cleared his throat. "Which one? The one about Super SEAL flying off the cliff to rescue me?"

"No, could you tell me what happened today?" Grace asked.

Danny blinked. "As a Super SEAL story?"

"Uh huh."

Danny scratched his head.

"It's not a secret. We can tell you what really happened. Why a Super SEAL story?" Officer Kono Kalakaua asked from her seat across the corridor.

"Because Uncle Steve can get hurt," Grace answered, her voice quivering.

Now Danny understood. "But Super SEAL always triumphs in the end."

Grace nodded, her head rubbing against her father's chest. Well, Danny figured any child picked up from school and taken directly to a hospital waiting room (and not for the first time!) deserved to get the story she wanted.

Danny tried to think how to start. He gazed at Kono, her face flushed, her eyes red, her hair disheveled. They'd all had a hell of a day, he thought fondly. All of them — which gave him the idea he needed.

"Every superhero needs a group of friends to help him out," Danny began. "Super SEAL has the JLH."

"The JLH?" Kono asked.

"The Justice League of Hawaii," Danny answered.

Grace giggled. Danny's mother was one of the rare moms who hadn't thrown out her son's childhood comic book collection. He had a few classics — Superman, Batman, Spider-man, Captain American and Justice League of America. A few of them might have been worth selling, if they hadn't been dog-eared and foxed by repeated rereadings, many of them with Grace during rainy visits to her grandma's house. She knew the JLA, so she could appreciate the JLH.

"Who are Super SEAL's friends?" Grace asked.

"First is Kono, a master of martial arts."

"She needs a superhero name, Daddy," Grace reproved her father.

Danny smoothed back his hair as he pondered. Grace giggled suddenly. "Kickass Kono," she said.

"Grace Williams!" Danny said in shock. "Where did you hear such language?"

The girl giggled again, nervously this time. "I heard Uncle Chin say it at your office. I didn't mean to eavesdrop," she finished in a voice almost too quiet to hear.

Danny's eyes moved to the man sitting next to Kono. Chin Ho Kelly shifted uncomfortably beneath Danny's cold gaze. "Sorry, brah. I'll try to be more careful."

The normally stoic Hawaiian looked so distressed, Danny couldn't be angry. He sighed.

"Just don't use that word in front of your mother or she'll blame me," he told his daughter.

"No, she'll blame Tommy," Grace said. "She heard the boys practicing bad words after school."

"Better Tommy than me," Danny answered. "But I'm not going to use that word in a story, or I might accidentally say it in front of Rachel. We will call her Karate Kono, or KK."

"What's Uncle Chin's superhero name?" Grace asked.

"Shotgun Kelly," Danny answered promptly.

Chin smiled appreciation of the law enforcement joke. There had been an old-time gangster named Machine Gun Kelly.

"Does Shotgun have a superpower?" Chin asked.

After a moment's thought, Danny answered, "You know Super SEAL has a heated gaze? Well, Shotgun has ice power in his eyes. He makes villains go cold with one look and when he directs that look down the barrel of his shotgun, the bad guys freeze!"

Chin chuckled at the image. Kono nodded at the plain, unvarnished truth in Danny's words. Everybody froze when they faced her cousin's shotgun.

"What about you, Daddy?" Grace asked. "What's your hero name?"

Danny was stymied. He was more given to self-deprecating humor than braggadocio.

"Deadeye Danno," Kono promptly contributed.

"And you lived up to it today," Chin praised, trying to get comfortable on the hard plastic chair.

Danny nodded thanks for the compliment and gave Kono a glare for using "Danno," but accepted the nickname because this was a story for Grace.

"Why 'deadeye'?" Grace asked Kono.

"'Deadeye' is a word for someone who is a very good shot," Kono explained. "And Danno is also very good at spotting clues. His eyes are dead accurate."

"Thank you, but it wasn't my eyes, I mean, Deadeye's eyes that kicked off this case. This one started with KK. You see, karate is a skill, not KK's superpower. Her power is finding dead bodies."

Grace made a face matched by Kono's.

"I know. But sometimes you don't like the superpower you're given," Danny said seriously.

"Is that really true, Aunt Kono?" wide-eyed Grace asked, stepping out of the story.

"It's not a superpower, Grace, but I do seem to find more bodies than most rookie cops," Kono admitted.

"That's how this started," Danny said, returning to the story. "Neighbors heard gunshots. Police didn't find a body, but a man was missing and Five-0, I mean the JLH, was sent to find him.

"KK searched outside and with her amazing powers, she quickly found the body."

Danny remembered how the directionality of a single blood drop pointed her toward a toolshed and half a leaf under a seemingly solid wall led her to the victim's safe room.

"And it was awesome, babe," Danny praised Kono, who gave a modest bow.

"The man was dead?" Grace asked sorrowfully.

Danny hugged her and kissed her forehead. "Yes. He got away from the men who shot him and hid in a secret room, but he died of his wounds."

"That's sad."

Danny appreciated his daughter's ready sympathy. "It is sad, but he got his revenge. He had evidence that led the JLH to his killers, the Evil Brothers."

Chin chuckled aloud at Danny changing "Avila Brothers" to "Evil Brothers." He said, "It was Deadeye who spotted the hidden papers and realized their significance."

It was Danny's turn to offer a modest bow and said, "The papers showed the location of the Evil Brother's lair." (A warehouse full of stolen merchandise.) "Super SEAL rushed there in the Sealmobile!"

Grace giggled, because she knew the Sealmobile was her father's Camaro.

"Super SEAL leaped over the fence in a single bound," Danny continued. Really, it was three bounds, to the top of the car, to the top of the fence and over, using a blanket to cover the razor wire on top. "He snapped the chains on the back gate with his super strength…" (a bolt cutter) "…and let in the JLH."

"They sneaked around to the front of the building and Shotgun froze the guards with his gaze." And his shotgun. "After they tied up the guards, the JLH entered the building. The Evil Brothers spotted them. The brothers split up and ran, ducking behind stacks of shipping crates. The JLH was forced to split up, too."

Remembering the action, Danny forgot he was supposed to be telling a Super SEAL story.

"I came to a cross corridor just as the Evil Brothers decided to make their escape by taking out the obstacles between them and the door. A pile of wooden crates tumbled down on Chin at the same time a shot at Kono punctured a barrel beside her. Liquid sprayed out, hitting her in the face. Blinded, she dropped her weapon to my right as Chin fell on his back, pinned down by crates to my left. Richard Evil stepped into view, pointing his gun at Kono, while his brother Brian stood over Chin." Danny's eyes were bleak. "I couldn't save them both, so I chose Kono."

"Because I'm the girl," Kono said in disgust.

"No, because Chin would kill me if I chose him over you," Danny retorted, spirit returning.

"Damn straight!" Chin said, from the chair next to his cousin. He shifted again, unable to get comfortable. "You did the right thing, brah," he reassured Danny. His right arm had several parallel cuts from the falling crates and his chest and hip were bruised, but he had gotten off lightly. He would be stiff for a few days; that was all. But Steve … Chin shook the gloomy thoughts away. "Danny, you're supposed to be telling a Super SEAL story," he reminded his friend.

"Right. Sorry, monkey," Danny apologized to his daughter.

She hugged him, because she knew he was worried. "It's OK, Danno. But what happened next. Uncle Chin didn't get shot, did he?" She looked at her "uncle" doubtfully, wondering if he was hiding something from her. He held out his arms to show her he was fine.

"No. See, there was one more reason that I … I mean, Deadeye Danno … chose to help KK. Danno knew that Super SEAL had gone in Shotgun's direction.

"Deadeye lived up to his name," Chin said, wanting to give Danny the credit he was due. "He shot Richard Evil. The bullet went through the bad guy's gun arm and into his chest. Put him down and helpless, without killing him. A very nice shot, Deadeye."

Danny tipped an imaginary cap to his flatterer, and continued the story, "At the same time, Super SEAL flew from the crates above Deadeye and into Shotgun Kelly's attacker. The two men crashed to the ground and there was a snap of something breaking."

Danny closed his mouth against the bile rising in his throat. That snap had sounded so much like the sound of Steve's arm breaking back on petroglyph cliff.

"Fortunately, the snap was just the sound of one of the crate boards breaking," a new voice said.

"Uncle Steve!" Grace exclaimed in delight. She leaped up to greet the newcomer.

Steve McGarrett raised his hands, one of them in a sling, to let Grace hug him around the waist. "You're OK!"

"Yes, I'm OK," Steve assured her. "The X-rays were negative."

"No break?" Danny asked anxiously.

"No, just a sprain."

"Thank heavens," Kono said. "We were worried you'd rebroken that same arm. That could be very messy."

Danny had pictured a splintered fracture, with surgery, pins and a steel rod. Planning "Six Million Dollar SEAL" jokes hadn't taken away the sick feeling he'd felt when he'd heard that snap.

Reassured that Steve was all right, Grace returned to her father. "Will you finish the story, Danno? Please?"

"Yeah, Danno, finish the story," Steve smirked, sitting next to Chin. "I have to wait for some paperwork."

"So, Super SEAL crashed on his face and on his bad arm and lay on top of the bad guy like a fallen tree," Danny said tartly. "Deadeye was worried about his partner, God knows why, but KK needed his help. Her eyes were burning and she couldn't see.

"Shotgun yelled that he'd help Super SEAL, so Deadeye grabbed Kono and hustled her outside where he'd seen a garden hose."

"Super SEAL's arm really hurt, but Shotgun Kelly helped him up while the police came to arrest the wicked Evil Brothers," Chin contributed.

"When Shotgun and Super SEAL came outside, Deadeye was drenching poor KK with a hose," Kono said. "Her clothes got soaked …" she gestured at the bulky scrubs she was wearing in place of her wet clothes. "… but he washed away most of the acid before she could be badly injured."

"Does it hurt?" Grace asked in sympathy. Kono's skin was irritated and her eyes were still red, but she assured the girl that there was no permanent damage.

"It's a good thing it was only dilute acetic acid," Steve said.

"That sounds scary," Grace said.

"It was vinegar, Grace. Basically. Really strong vinegar," Danny said. "Though I don't think this tasted as good as vinegar."

Kono made a face. "It didn't," she confirmed.

"And after that, everyone came here to be checked out while I picked you up at school," Danny finished.

"Because Deadeye Danno was the only one too smart to get hurt," Chin said.

"So, Deadeye Danno is Super SEAL's sidekick?" Steve asked with seeming innocence.

Danny glared at his partner, but it was Chin who vigorously denied that characterization.

"No, Deadeye is not a sidekick. What would that make Shotgun and KK, minions? We are not minions!" He crossed his arms, despite a twinge of pain, and exchanged glares with Steve. Danny yelped and covered Grace's head and his own.

"No! The heated gaze meets the icy stare! Duck! There might be an explosion!"

Steve and Chin transferred their glares to Danny who remained in hiding. Soon the giggles from Kono and Grace made the two men laugh and relax.

"Are they done?" Danny stage-whispered to Grace.

She pried open a peephole between Danny's fingers and met Steve's twinkling eyes.

"I think it's OK, now," she whispered back.

Danny peeked from beneath his arm, decided it was safe and released his daughter.

"Anyway, you can't be minions," Danny told Chin. "Only bad guys have minions."

"Then what does Super SEAL have?" Kono asked.

"Super friends," Steve suggested as a peace offering.

"Super friends," Danny accepted.

"So Super SEAL triumphed in the end," Grace said brightly.

"Thanks to his friends," Steve admitted.

"The JLH," Grace informed him.

"Huh?"

"The Justice League of Hawaii," the Five-0 officers chorused.


	6. Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

_Written for the Numbers Challenges forum. I supplied numbers which Xana4 translated into: Steve, drama, K+ rating. I'd had the thought that I wanted to do a "Faster Than a Speeding Bullet" chapter in the Adventures of SuperSEAL, but I never got beyond naming all the weapons. Then for the Numbers Challenge, I kept coming up with story ideas that were more "angst" than "drama," but suddenly the drama clicked with Bullet, but then after I wrote the fight, I had to tone it down again because breaking a guy's neck isn't K+. And maybe there's too much humor for a story labeled drama? This challenge stuff is hard work!_

**Faster Than a Speeding Bullet**

Steve McGarrett wished for his team, his weapon and his pants in that order, and then wondered when he'd become so dependent on such things. With or without teammates, with or without pants, he was a Navy SEAL. He didn't need weapons; he was a weapon.

Steve had gone for a run on Superbowl Sunday morning, promising his team that he would be back to let them in so they could watch the game together at his house. He didn't intend to go far, just a couple of miles down the beach and back. In the 80-degree heat, he wore only his running shorts and shoes, and carried only his ID, $2.50 and a house key in the inadequate pocket of his shorts.

Steve had amused himself on the way by thinking of ways he could convince Danny Williams that he was a New England Patriots fan, just so he could get his partner ranting about the superiority of the New York Giants and how they were really the New Jersey Giants because that's where they played. Steve settled on the line, "It's unpatriotic not to root for the Patriots."

He'd been on his way back, running a little late, so he'd taken the access road above the beach to make better time. Below on the well-packed sand he saw a father and son running together. The teenager jogged along easily, sometimes backwards, beside the older man who labored along but smiled as he did. The two were enjoying each other's company, probably working off their own Superbowl feast in advance.

As the father and son came up to a cluster of boulders that reached from the beach to the road, they came to an abrupt and obviously startled halt. Steve slowed. He couldn't see what they were looking at, but his nose for trouble (highly overdeveloped, according to Danny) told him something was up.

Steve moved quietly, trying to see past the boulders, and glimpsed a man up on the road carrying a Mossberg pump-action shotgun. Steve ducked back before he could be seen.

Some trick of the rocks carried voices from the beach.

"That would be betraying my company and my country. I won't do it," said a voice that must belong to the jogger.

"If you won't give us the access codes for money, do it for your health. Give us the information and no one has to get hurt," a gruff voice said reasonably.

"If you shoot me, you won't get anything," replied the jogger.

"You're a scientist. You should be smarter than that. I wasn't talking about shooting you," Gruff said. "Young Peter here. He's looking forward to a track scholarship to Oregon, a berth on the Olympic team. Be hard to do that if I put a bullet through his foot."

"You wouldn't," the scientist said without conviction. He knew Gruff would.

"Don't do it, Dad," the boy said stoutly. But Steve heard fear in his voice. "There's always the Paralympics," he said defiantly.

Steve was sorry now he hadn't replaced the torn strap that usually fastened his cell phone to his arm. And he was sorry he didn't see any traffic on this access road, though he could hear cars passing on the main road not far away. But since he couldn't summon help, he would have to be the help.

He resumed jogging, faintly whistling between his teeth. When the shotgun-toting lookout stepped out from an alcove in the rocks, Steve just waved cheerfully, as if he expected to see deer hunters along this stretch of beach. The man growled at Steve to keep moving. Steve put his hand to his ear and swerved closer.

"I said, keep going," the man growled, gesturing with his Mossberg, which meant it wasn't pointing at Steve.

"OK," Steve said amiably, grabbing the barrel of the shotgun and shoving it up so it impacted with the man's forehead. The man staggered backwards, pulling the gun from Steve's grasp then dropping it himself so it clattered down among the rocks. Regretting the loss of the gun, Steve knocked the guard unconscious.

But the noise of the falling shotgun attracted the attention of the men below.

"Marco? Who's up there?" Gruff demanded. When he didn't get any answer, Gruff ordered, "Whoever you are, come down here or I'll shoot this kid."

Steve had intended to go down anyway. Unarmed and decidedly underdressed, he went down through a path in the rocks and found Gruff with two other men, all holding guns on the father and son who were backed against the rocks.

Like the man above, the trio wore open-necked Hawaiian shirts and tan chinos. The attire was appropriate for a day at the beach. The guns weren't.

Gruff-voice proved to be a short but muscular man with dark hair. He held an airweight Smith & Wesson 642. The snub-nosed revolver was lightweight, but Gruff held it as if he was unfamiliar with it. He might be the boss but he wasn't used to doing his own dirty work; and yet the scowl on his face and the set of his shoulders warned that he was a ruthless man.

His henchmen looked more professional. One was a powerfully built Samoan with tattooed wrists and dark hair slicked back with oil. He carried a SIG-Sauer P229R like he knew how to use it. The other guard was white, but well tanned, with spiky, bleached blond hair and narrow, watchful brown eyes. His Glock 19 homed in on Steve as soon as the commander came into view.

"Who are you?" demanded Gruff.

"Just an innocent bystander who doesn't like guns pointed at him," Steve answered, his arms held casually away from his sides.

The gruff leader's sharp eyes took in Steve's fit physique and tattooed arms and concluded he was a military man, probably dangerous. He didn't know the half of it.

"Go check on Marco," Gruff ordered the Samoan. "You, get over with them," he said, gesturing Steve toward the other captives. Gruff ordered the blond to watch Steve. An unnecessary order, because the blond's feral gaze never left this new threat.

As Steve moved obligingly toward the two he wanted to protect, the father took advantage of Steve's distraction.

"When I move my hand, run for help as fast as you can, and don't look back," he told his son in a low voice that carried to Steve's ears, but no farther.

Peter gulped, but nodded.

"Marco's out cold, boss!" the Samoan called from the road.

Gruff's eyes automatically turned that direction. The father lifted his hand and his son shot away as if a starter's pistol had sounded. Olympics, indeed! Legs churning he flew down the beach toward a path that led up to the main road.

Gruff fired after him, but the scientist leaped in between. His interference cost him a bullet in his leg. He collapsed in the sand, clutching his thigh but with triumph on his face, because his boy got away clean.

Steve started to move when the boy did, but had to stop at a gesture from the blond henchman's Glock. True to his orders, the guard had not taken his eyes off Steve for a second.

Cursing, Gruff moved toward the fallen father and made the mistake of stepping between Steve and the blond. Steve exploded into action, flinging the handful of sand he'd been holding all this time into the leader's eyes and striking Gruff's Smith & Wesson from his hand. The revolver spun away onto the beach where a wave washed over it. Steve raised his hand to knock Gruff out.

"Hold it!" the blond ordered. He had darted to one side to get the drop on Steve again. The commander had no choice but to let the leader go. Steve stood slowly, eyes fixed on the man with the gun.

"Kill him!" Gruff sputtered, wiping his sandy face on his shirtsleeve.

The blond smiled nastily.

"Maybe Superman is faster than a speeding bullet, but you aren't," the gunman gloated.

True, Steve thought, ignoring the leader climbing to his feet and keeping his eyes focused on the immediate threat. An ordinary, mortal man can't outrun the chemical reaction that spits out death at more than a thousand feet per second. But bullets are fired by other mortal men.

Steve thought of the story of the two men chased by a hungry bear. The one man didn't have to be faster than the bear. He just had to be faster than his companion.

Steve didn't have to be faster than the bullet. He just had to be faster than the gunman.

The commander's focused gaze detected a slight narrowing of the gunman's eyes, a slight tensing of his shoulders, in unconscious preparation for the noise and recoil. Just before the finger tightened on the trigger, Steve spun to the right, turning sideways to the shooter to present a smaller target.

The bullet whizzed past his chest, close enough that he could hear it pass.

Before the shocked gunman could adjust his aim, Steve was on him, catching him around the neck, throwing him to the ground with a punch to the jaw that knocked him out. The Glock 19 fell beneath the body, buried in the sand. Steve didn't have time to fish it out and wouldn't have trusted the sand-coated weapon if he had.

Without a backwards glance at the unarmed boss, Steve charged toward the towering Samoan who came running around the rocks in response to the shot. Steve cracked his hand down on the Samoan's wrist, making him lose his grip on his SIG. But that didn't stop the Samoan. The man was tough and Steve couldn't summon full killer SEAL mode now that the Samoan was unarmed. They traded blows that were blocked by forearms and didn't land. Suddenly Steve dropped, scything one leg to take his opponent's feet out from under him. The big man fell with a woof, whacking his head on a rock. He lay on his back dazed, not unconscious but no longer interested in the events around him.

Panting, Steve looked for the injured victim. The scientist was seated on the sand, clutching his leg to stop the flow of blood, but above him stood the leader of the gunmen, raising the lookout's shotgun to his eye.

Gruff tapped the Mossberg's breach with his forefinger. "You may be faster than a speeding bullet," he conceded. "But are you faster than a load of buckshot?"

Steve — smiled.

"I don't have to be," he answered.

From behind him, Gruff heard a shell pump into the chamber of a Remington 870 shotgun. Out of the corner of his left eye, he saw the muzzle of a Heckler & Koch P30 aimed at his temple.

"My finger is already on the trigger. Yours isn't," Danny Williams said in a conversational tone. "If you so much as twitch, we'll find out if you're faster than a speeding bullet. Spread your fingers!"

The man did as ordered and Chin Ho Kelly plucked the shotgun from his lax grip.

Chin handcuffed the crestfallen leader while Danny called for medical assistance. (He'd already called for backup.) With Gruff on his knees, Chin went on to apply zip cuffs to the two henchmen who were both beginning to recover.

Danny stood guard, while Steve checked on the injured man.

"Didn't I say he'd be in trouble?" Danny demanded of Chin.

"You did," Chin agreed. "Your very words were, 'he's either stepped in a hole and broken his leg or he spotted a dolphin being mugged by two sharks and swam to the rescue.'"

"I was close," Danny pointed out. "It was four sharks."

"Nice to know you were worried about me," Steve said.

"I wouldn't say 'worried'," Danny said forcefully. "I'd say, 'aggravated.'"

"I'd say 'worried,'" Chin corrected. "Because it's not like you to be late to watch a football game, boss."

"So, we started driving, looking for a little lost SEAL," Danny said. "But instead we saw a scared young man trying to flag down help on the road and we just knew you had something to do with it."

Paramedics and police officers came scrambling down the rocks to treat the gunshot victim and take the gunmen into custody respectively. Peter followed behind them, racing to his father's side.

With the action over, Steve began to feel a chill from the ocean breeze. Danny's sharp eyes saw his partner rub the goose bumps on his arm. Shaking his head, Danny claimed a blanket from the paramedics to cover his shirtless partner, as the injured man called Steve to his side.

"I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up. Thank you," the father said, as the EMTs made him comfortable on a gurney.

"I didn't do much," Steve said modestly, kneeling beside the gurney.

"You fought four men and dodged a bullet!" The injured man frowned, trying to place Steve's face but not equating the half-dressed runner with the head of the Five-0 task force he'd often seen on TV. "Do I know you?" he asked.

Danny laughed. He came up behind Steve, twisted two corners of the blanket together and draped it over his shoulders like a cape. "Recognize him now?" Danny asked with a grin.

Steve rolled his eyes, but the scientist answered Danny's grin.

"Of course," the injured man said. "Faster than a speeding bullet. I should have known."


	7. Captain America

_Author's Note: Now that I finished writing Stormy Weather, I had a chance to work on a few little fics and I really loved the Avengers movie._

**The Adventures of SuperSEAL:**

**Captain America**

It was an old-fashioned Mexican standoff in the cavernous hardware store.

Make that "Hawaiian standoff," Detective Danny Williams thought distractedly as bullets and bricks flew past his head. Why should the Mexicans get all the credit?.

The protesters had blown up three cell towers, claiming that they were protecting the public from radiation that would fry their brains. Danny thought they'd already fried their brains. One of the towers had been near a school, which was criminal, the protesters trumpeted.

What was criminal, Danny thought, was the tower falling on the school, injuring 17 children taking summer science classes.

The crime lab seemed to take the disruption of science classes personally. Working round the clock, the scientists had determined the elements used in the bombs and, through traces of pollen, identified the probable location of the bomb making headquarters … within a couple of miles. But those couple of miles were within a well populated Honolulu neighborhood, so that location was not as helpful as it might have been.

But the lab guys also found serial numbers on the pressure tanks used as bomb casings. Each tank had been purchased at separate hardware stores two days before each bombing. And all the hardware stores were within the crime lab's target zone.

So Five-0 and HPD staked out all the hardware stores within the zone and Danny and his partner had gotten lucky.

Some luck, Danny thought, as bullets peppered the pallet of lumber protecting him. Both parties were trapped in the back corner of the store, amid pallets of bricks, bags of cement and stacks of two-by-fours. Neither side could get to either the front door or the rear loading dock without exposing itself to gunfire from the other group.

The bombers had taken the high ground, climbing up a stack of bricks along the side wall. They were saving their ammunition by throwing bricks down on Danny and his partner, Steve McGarrett.

"Did you call for backup?" Steve asked Danny.

"No, I haven't called for backup!" Danny said in quiet but intense aggravation. "There's no cell service back here, because someone blew up the cell tower!"

"We had cell service out front," Steve protested.

"Only one bar," Danny reminded him. "Back here with all this interference…" He gestured at the miles of metal shelving, the galvanized pipe along one wall and the row of water heaters along the back.

The Navy SEAL nodded understanding. "Guess we'll have to take care of this ourselves, then," he said casually.

Danny palmed his face. "Of course, we will. And what does SuperSEAL have in mind?"

Steve used a metal trashcan lid to deflect a flying brick.

"Who do you think you are, Captain America?" Danny called.

Steve smirked — they both loved that movie. "His name is Steve," he pointed out. "Duck!"

Danny saw two bricks arcing in his direction. If he dodged, he'd be under the attackers' guns. He covered his head and felt his partner leap to his side. Two loud clangs made his ears ring. He looked up to see Steve dumping the bricks out of the lid.

"Thanks, 'Cap'," Danny said.

Steve grinned. He hefted a brick, but decided it was too heavy to throw up to the bombers' hiding place. He could get it there, but it would lose all its force in the ascent. He wished he had Captain America's vibranium shield that could ricochet right back to his hands. But maybe he could make the trash can lid work for him.

Danny could see the wheels turning in his partner's Rube Goldberg mind.

"Don't do it," he begged. "Someone out front will use the landline to report the gunshots. We can wait," Danny said at the same moment Steve decided, "We can't wait."

He took off his belt and looped it through the handle of the lid.

"No, please, please, please. You are not a super soldier," Danny pleaded.

"You're the one who calls me SuperSEAL," Steve reminded him.

"That was meant to be ironic," Danny countered, readying his gun because he knew he'd lost the argument already.

"Cover me," Steve ordered.

Danny began to fire at the top of the pile of bricks. Sharp chips flew, forcing the bombers to duck their heads. Steve slung the belt over his shoulder and began to scale the metal shelves behind Danny with the lid dangling across his back.

Danny shook his head incredulously. "Commander America," he muttered. He fired steadily, ejected the empty cartridge, slapped in another and continued the barrage.

Steve climbed swiftly, reaching the top where he could look down on the bricks and the three men atop them. They looked up, spotting the movement, and raised their weapons toward Steve. Without removing the belt, he flung the shield, I mean, trash can lid at them.

It hit the wall behind them and, being made of galvanized iron instead of vibranium, it failed to rebound. It dropped straight down, landing flat on the bombers' heads with a cymbal crash that was almost worse than the physical blow.

Dazed by the deafening wallop, they shoved the trash can lid aside, only to see Steve aiming his gun at them from his high ground, as Danny clambered to the top of the brick stack. While he cuffed the suspects, the detective heard sirens approaching.

"See, I told you we could have waited," he told Steve accusingly.

Steve dropped lightly from his perch. He shrugged. "But this worked."

"Whatever you say, soldier boy," Danny said.

Steve rolled his eyes at Danny's willful error. "It's Navy, Danny. Navy!"

"Ha!" the detective retorted in triumph. "And that's why you can't be Captain America. Because he's Army!"


	8. Incredible Hulk

**The Incredible Hulk**

Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett felt like the Incredible Hulk. The 6-1 Five-0 leader towered over the excited children he was helping escort to the Bishop Museum. Danny Williams had volunteered to chaperone a field trip for his daughter's class and a first grade class, the winners in a schoolwide recycling competition. But Danny was hobbling on crutches and it was Steve's fault, so he volunteered to take Danny's place.

Actually, Danny didn't blame Steve for this injury. (For once!) He said it was his own choice to jump out of a second story window to tackle the man who had a gun on his partner.

"I'd have just shot him, if we didn't need him to tell us where little Ekaterina was," Danny said. But since an 8-year-old girl's life was in danger, Danny didn't hesitate to take the jump and bring the kidnapper down.

One of McGarrett's patented interrogations later, the man had led Five-0 (minus Danny who was getting his ankle X-rayed) to the frightened but unharmed daughter of a Russian diplomat. This had not only saved a kidnap victim but put Five-0 back in the good graces of the Russian government, which made Governor Denning very happy. So it was worth a badly sprained, thankfully not broken, ankle.

But now Steve felt obligated to make good on Danny's promise to Grace's teacher and he felt woefully out of place, especially among the hero-worshipping first graders whose heads hardly came up to his hips. He was honestly afraid he was going to step on some of the smaller ones and he watched the ground vigilantly, as if he was tiptoeing through a room filled with venomous scorpions. (Yeah, been there, done that!)

Dr. Gabrielle Asano gave the uncomfortable-seeming Steve a wink when she greeted the classes. Danny's girlfriend had volunteered to give the early morning tour. She wasn't surprised that Steve was there in Danny's place, because Danny had called her the night before.

"Don't look so stricken. It'll be all right, Steve," she whispered, as she shepherded the kids into the next room. "It's only a school tour, not a robbery in progress."

"I'd be happier with the robbery," Steve muttered back.

Do not tempt Fate. She has a nasty sense of humor.

There was a crash from the ali'i gallery where items of Hawaiian royalty were on display, including a selection of precious and semi-precious gems on loan from one of the families.

The curious kids flooded that way, despite sudden calls of concern from the chaperones. The Navy commander didn't call, his eyes grew cold and he bellowed a command.

"Stop!"

Everyone in the main room froze, child and chaperone alike. Steve pointed at a gallery on the opposite side of the museum. "Get in the sports hall, now! I'll get the other kids."

They went, with the chaperones chivying the kids ahead of them. Steve scanned the herd, but couldn't spot Grace. His heart clenched. He'd lost his partner's daughter. Danny was going to kill him.

Then he saw Danny's girlfriend walking with brisk determination toward the ali'i room.

"Gabby!"

"Steve, I'm in charge here. I have to see what's happened." It might be some sort of accident, even though no one was supposed to be working in the ali'i gallery.

A shriek of true fear in a childish voice interrupted them. Steve drew his weapon and rushed into the gallery.

Four straying first graders and a fiercely protective fifth grader — Grace! — faced two gunmen across a room littered with broken glass from a display case.

The thieves were as surprised as the kids. They had thought the museum was closed. It was — closed to the public. But it opened two hours early for school tours. When the first graders ran in — with the cop's daughter trying to hold them back — the men had drawn their guns. At first the 6-year-olds had laughed at the game, but when one man snarled at them, a little girl screamed and a boy began to cry.

The frightened children made Steve see red. He roared in wordless fury, drawing attention away from the kids. Afraid to fire with the kids so close, Steve shoved his gun in his holster and charged barehanded, while Grace and Gabby hustled the first graders away.

All the movement confused the thieves just long enough for Steve to close with them. Then there was no contest. The Navy SEAL punched one in the gut, then spun into a roundhouse kick to the second man's face, following up with a sweeping kick that took the second man's feet out from under him. He crashed down on his face. Without a pause, Steve struck backwards with his elbow into the first man's chin, then caught him around the head and flipped him over his shoulder to slam down on his back on the floor.

It was all over so fast, that Gabby and Grace hadn't cleared the room. They stared at Steve, mouths agape, only now realizing that some of Danny's wild stories hadn't been exaggerated after all.

The commander used zip cuffs to bind the thieves hand and foot, then sat back on his haunches, breathing slowly to keep from hyperventilating as he imagined telling Danny that Grace and Gabby had been killed.

The thought made Steve's face look a sickly shade of green, which may have inspired Gabby's comment.

"Wow! Steve," Gabby said in a shaky voice. "You must have been channeling the Hulk."

Steve looked around anxiously at the awed youngsters and spotted Grace's proudly grinning and entirely unharmed face. He gave a sigh of relief and shook himself, as if awakening from a trance.

"The Hulk?" he said. "No, when children are in danger, when Grace is in danger, I only need to channel Daddy Danny. He's as fierce as the Hulk any day."


	9. Steven, God of Thunder

**Steven, God of Thunder**

SEAL Commander Wade Gutches strode into Five-0 headquarters with a worried expression on his face.

Lt. Chin Ho Kelly and Detective Danny Williams were discussing something beside the smart table. Beyond them Wade could see Lt. Cmdr. Steve McGarrett talking on the phone while Officer Kono Kalakaua fed him information using an iPad and a sheaf of papers.

Chin and Danny went to greet their visitor and shake his hand. "Danny, Chin, I was hoping to see Steve for a minute."

"He's giving the governor an update on violent crime stats," Chin explained. "He should be almost done."

Wade looked anxiously at the office. Steve spotted him, waved, held up one finger and mouthed "one minute." Wade nodded in relief.

"Is this some top secret SEAL session?" Danny joked.

"No, this is serious Five-0 business. I need to talk to Steve, to all of you," Wade said in tones that wiped all humor from Chin's eyes.

"You have a case for us?" Danny asked, wary of a joke. "Because the last I looked, Navy cases are the jurisdiction of NCIS and they're jealous of their jurisdiction."

(A fact that Danny wholeheartedly agreed with, because he was territorial about Five-0's jurisdiction, too.)

"This is unofficially official," Wade said, trying for a lighter tone that fell flat. He was worried. Both detectives could tell that.

Kono picked up her iPad, leaving the papers on Steve's desk, and left the boss' office. She held out her hand to Wade, but he pulled her into a hug instead. "No sailor worth his salt would take a handshake from a pretty lady if he can get a hug instead."

"Flatterer," Kono laughed, but gave him a second hug for good measure.

Steve finally hung up the phone and came out to greet his fellow SEAL. "That man can talk," the commander said in exasperation. "No wonder he became a politician. What brings you here, Wade?"

"I'm bringing an official request for assistance through unofficial channels. You remember Andre LeGrande."

"The NCIS chief at Pearl? What about him?"

"He happened to run into me at a bar at about 16:00," Wade said. "Except there was no 'happen' about it. His nephew is in my training company, so Andre knows my schedule pretty well. And because of his nephew, he usually comes over to chat. But this afternoon he was chatting and laughing like normal and all the time he was telling me a horror story. A Navy lieutenant and her 3-year-old son have been kidnapped. They're being held hostage to force her husband, a civilian computer programmer, to steal valuable information from NCIS."

"And NCIS doesn't want to handle the investigation?" Steve asked, puzzled.

"Andre thinks someone in his office is involved in the kidnapping," Wade said. "The husband, Chad Fleck, managed to send a couple of emails looking for help. One went to Andre's personal email — Fleck just finished upgrading the NCIS computers, so he's been in close contact with Andre. The message Andre got indicated that Fleck had sent the same information to NCIS. But when he got to the office, Andre found that email had been erased. It could have been anyone on his team."

"So he doesn't know who to trust," Kono said, getting a nod in return. She took a flash drive that Wade handed over.

"Andre downloaded the information and access codes on this. He figures the kidnappers think they stopped the leak, so the family is probably still alive."

"And he's asking for our help to find them and identify the leak?" Steve asked.

"Yes. I can have my team ready to help you on a moment's notice for a rescue mission. Lt. Fleck is one of our own and we don't leave our people behind."

"Wait, there aren't any women SEALs," Kono protested.

"No. She's the daughter of a SEAL and her son is the grandson of a SEAL."

Steve nodded understanding. This was the culture he'd lived in more than half his life.

"Pssshh." Danny's scornful noise broke the moment of SEAL bonding. "SEALs, schlemiels. You had me at 'kidnapped 3-year-old.' Can we get to work, now?"

He glared at Super SEAL and Mega SEAL, either of whom could probably crush the smaller man like an empty beer can, except that he was too smart to give them a reason to.

"Right," Steve agreed. "Chin?"

"Already on it."

Chin had transferred the information from the flash drive into Five-0's high tech computer system. It included the message LeGrande had received, his list of suspects and access to the NCIS system.

"Didn't anyone miss the lieutenant when she didn't show up for work?" Steve asked.

"She was on leave. The family was taken on the day they were supposed to go on vacation to the Grand Canyon."

Steve and Danny studied the message Fleck had sent LeGrande while Chin and Kono tried to trace the message sent to NCIS.

"The family was knocked out by some sort of gas, so they don't know where they were taken," Danny said, reading aloud so Chin and Kono could hear. "Fleck said they heard a hissing noise and got dizzy. They couldn't get out of the house before they blacked out. They woke up in what looks like one of the island's World War II bunkers."

"That doesn't help much. There are bunkers all over the island," Steve said. "Fleck hasn't been allowed outside, so he can't even guess what side of the island they're on."

"He says his wife and son were taken away and he hasn't seen them since they all woke up together." Danny imagined himself in that position and it made his blood boil on Fleck's behalf.

"Then he goes on to explain what information his captors want. Fortunately — that's his word — just because he installed the equipment, doesn't mean he knows all the passcodes, so it's going to take him a couple of days to find it," Steve said. "Then he asks Andre for help and says he sent the same message to NCIS headquarters as a backup."

"OK, I've got something," Chin announced. "I've found the message. It was deleted, but you know when you hit delete the information isn't really gone. You're just erasing the address and telling the computer that space is for rent. Until something fills the space, the message is still there."

Danny nodded. He'd learned long ago, by accidentally deleting something important, that data could be recovered. "So this message wasn't wiped out?"

"No, so I'd say that automatically eliminates two of LeGrande's suspects. Their backgrounds show too much computer training to make that mistake," Chin said.

"I can eliminate another one," Kono said. "Agent LeGrande included the alibis he'd collected without being able to ask for alibis. Agent Li had mentioned going out to dinner. I've got hotel surveillance footage that shows her and her date at the restaurant during the time in question."

Kono took Li's photo off the screen and the pictures of the two Chin had cleared. That left two men, both dark haired with light brown skin, one Asian, one Hispanic. "Agent Hashimoto and Agent Montoya." Both men had been on duty the evening the email was sent. Either could be the culprit.

"If we could question them, we could probably figure it but in no time," Danny commented.

"But we can't make them suspicious, so we do it Chin's way," Steve said.

Chin soon ferreted out the exact time when the email was deleted. Base logs showed Hashimoto arriving after that. Only Montoya was in the building when the email came in.

"Bingo," Wade said.

* * *

><p>After that, it was easy, if roundabout. LeGrande received a chatty call from his nephew, and then sent Montoya to deliver some paperwork to Five-0 headquarters. The volume of Navy personnel on the islands ensured that Five-0 and NCIS had to work together a lot.<p>

Montoya walked unsuspecting into the Ali'iolani Hale, where he was promptly disarmed and hustled into the interrogation room. Steve and Danny circled him like sharks.

"It isn't often that criminals walk right in the front door," Danny smirked.

"Criminals…?"

Steve slammed a chair on the floor. His thousand-yard stare was cold as a blast chiller. "Don't play dumb. You sold out a Navy lieutenant and her family to pay off your credit cards? Credit cards?"

Focused on the raging commander, Montoya didn't even notice Danny come behind him, until the detective grabbed a fistful of the suspect's curly black hair. "I'm not Navy," Danny said in a venomous hiss. "I'm not a sailor. The idea that you betrayed the Navy doesn't piss me off the way it does Commander McGarrett. What I am is a father. And the idea that you sold out a 3-year-old child makes me want to drop a grenade down your throat and hold your mouth shut."

Danny cupped his hand around Montoya's jaw and clapped it shut, just as a demonstration. From inches away, angry blue eyes bored into Montoya's brown ones.

"Now, when I let go, you are going to move that jaw and tell us everything you know about who is holding the Fleck family and where."

He did.

* * *

><p>"I liked the grenade idea," Steve said, as they left their prisoner cuffed to the chair and went to organize a rescue mission.<p>

"You like any idea involving grenades," Danny countered.

"That's true."

* * *

><p>Five-0, SEAL Team 9 and the very angry remaining members of NCIS Pearl Harbor worked out their plan of attack.<p>

"Montoya only knew the area where the family was being held. Satellite imagery puts them here." Everyone gathered around a pair of computer screens showing real-time heat signatures. There were some buildings and an extensive bunker system built into the hills.

"Nice to work with Catherine on the up-and-up," Danny muttered in his partner's ear.

Unfortunately, the people were scattered in small groups. Some were obviously patrols, but others could be mercenaries cleaning weapons or prisoners under guard. It was difficult to tell.

"We know Fleck and his wife have been split up. If we don't rescue all the hostages at the same time…" Steve didn't need to finish.

"So we need to split up," Danny mused. He pointed at two groups. "Both of these look like guys using computers. Maybe they're playing Donkey Kong, but maybe one's Fleck."

"All right," Steve agreed. "I'll take this one. You take that one."

Danny shook his head. "No, I want this group. Because … doesn't this heat signature look smaller than the others?"

"It's hard to tell, because it stays so close to the other one," Kono said in knowing tones.

The others all nodded. "Like a child clinging to his mother," Chin voiced what they all thought.

"OK, then Gutches, you take this other maybe-computer-guy," Steve decided.

He quickly parceled out the men and women, putting NCIS agents with each group because Chad Fleck would recognize them. Kono and LeGrande were with Steve and another SEAL. Danny got Chin, Hashimoto and a SEAL. Gutches had the NCIS computer expert and, of course, a couple of his SEALs. The rest of the SEALs and agents went after the roving patrols.

"Take care of yourself," Danny said, patting Steve's back, or rather the bag slung over Steve's back.

"Don't hit that too hard, Danny," Wade teased. "Not if you want to keep all your fingers."

"Why? What's in it?" the detective said suspiciously.

"A selection of grenades, some C4, some shaped charges that will blow a hole in a bunker wall if we need it," Wade said.

"That's my partner, a walking arsenal," Danny sighed.

"I thought these bunkers were meant to stand up to bombs," Chin said.

Wade gave him a look of pure condescension. "These are World War II bunkers. We've learned a few things since then."

Chin held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry."

* * *

><p>Danny and Steve picked the winning tickets. Steve got eyes on Fleck, working on the computer under close guard in one of the cinderblock buildings. The man's face was bruised and cut. He'd obviously been beaten, but he was still alive.<p>

Standing over him was the leader of the mercenary group. LeGrande identified him as Niko Marcos, known for collecting information through kidnapping and extortion and then selling it to the highest bidder.

Steve waited to find out if Danny's group had found the mother and child. Instead of a quiet acknowledgement in his com, the commander heard gunfire.

* * *

><p>Danny and Chin had come upon a rape in progress. In a side room just inside one of the bunker complexes, they found a door wide open and unguarded, because the guards were inside having fun. Lt. Kerri Fleck's guards had tired of their boring job and decided to liven it up with some recreation. Two held her down, while a third shoved up her skirt. There was fury in her face, but she didn't struggle, because a fourth man held a knife to the throat of little Shane.<p>

"Let my mommy go!" the boy shouted, then sank his teeth into his captor's arm.

The man roared and raised his knife to stab.

Danny's shot took him right between the eyes. The others fired half an instant later, taking out the three would-be rapists.

"Sorry, partner, we had a situation," Danny reported. "We've got the woman and child."

* * *

><p>Back in the office, Marcos drew his gun.<p>

"It came from the woman's prison, jefe," one guard reported.

"If those fools have injured her, you have my permission to kill them. Go!"

"Danny, so far Marcos thinks it's his men shooting, but you've got five coming your way," Steve told his friend. "We're moving to take out Marcos now."

He threw a couple of flash-bang grenades through the window. The disorienting lights and sounds made Marcos stagger and Fleck fall from his chair. LeGrande swooped in to drag the hostage to safety, while Steve and Kono zip cuffed Marcos and his remaining guards.

* * *

><p>"Never met a grenade he didn't like," Danny muttered, when he heard the flash-bang.<p>

Danny's rescue was hampered by the fact that Lt. Fleck couldn't walk. Marcos had callously broken her ankle to make sure she didn't try to escape. Danny and Chin were supporting her, when they saw Marcos' posse coming toward them.

"Into the bunker!" Hashimoto ordered. "George and I will try to lead them away."

The two men's fire gave the Five-0 duo and kidnap victims a head start into the bunker system, but they couldn't prevent the posse chasing after them. A couple of the posse guarded the entrance, while the rest pursued the woman, hoping to use her as a bargaining chip to escape whoever this was that had attacked them.

Hashimoto reported Danny's plight to Steve. The coms wouldn't work deep inside the bunkers, but each team had a satellite phone for backup, so they could still reach Danny.

Inside the bunker, Danny and Chin helped Lt. Fleck limp along through the maze of concrete walled rooms. Shane Fleck ran alongside his mother without complaint. The group dodged left and right, staying out of view of the pursuers, who had to split up and slow down to investigate every room.

Danny hoped to find a back way out, but they found themselves in a dead end instead. The Five-0 officers eased the lieutenant to the ground and took up a watchful stance.

"Now what?" Danny said, as much to himself as to Chin.

Before Chin could answer, the brave little boy shivered and abruptly climbed onto his mother's lap. "Thunder," he said fearfully, hiding his head under her arm.

"What?" Chin asked, then they all heard what the youthful ears had heard, a faint rumble. The stone floor beneath them seemed to shiver.

"What?" Danny echoed Chin's bewilderment. Then his sat phone buzzed.

"We have your heat signatures on the satellite," Steve's voice said without preamble. "Stay where you are. Marcos' men are moving in from the entrance, but we're taking you out the back way."

Danny looked around at the bare concrete walls of their dead end hideout. "There is no back way!"

Danny could hear a grin in his partner's voice. "Making one," Steve said laconically.

The thunder came again, louder now, and the ground trembled. The child flinched and covered his ears.

"Oh no!" Danny said. "Oh, hell no!"

Thunder cracked, a definite explosion this time. The walls shook. Dust rained down.

"Danny, cover your ears, open your mouths and stay exactly where you are," Steve warned.

Everyone heard him and obeyed, even little Shane. His mother added to his protection, bracketing his ears with her elbows as she safeguarded her own eardrums. As he covered his own ears, Chin heard running boot steps in the corridor.

"They're coming!" he told Danny.

Danny threw himself on top of the lieutenant and her child and shouted at the sat phone, "Now, Steve! Go!"

Thunder deafened and lightning blinded. The room quaked. Men screamed.

As their pursuers ran through the door with guns raised, a perfectly placed, perfectly shaped explosive charge blasted through the side wall, spraying the enemy with shards of rock like a giant shotgun. Not a speck, not a grain of sand, went close to the trapped foursome who were dazed by the blast, but otherwise unscathed.

Navy SEALs and NCIS agents poured through McGarrett's back door, rounding up the stunned and bleeding mercenaries. Steve and Kono ran to their dust-covered friends.

"Is everyone all right?" Kono asked, as she knelt beside her cousin.

"My ears are pounding like a high surf," Chin answered in a too loud voice. "But I think I'm OK."

"Lieutenant Fleck?" Steve asked.

"I'm OK, sir," she answered, also too loudly. "Shane, are you OK?"

"I don't like thunder," the boy said with tears in his eyes.

"Neither do I, kid," Danny said, shaking his head as if he could drive the ringing away. "Blame him." He pointed at his partner. "Steven, God of Thunder."


	10. Iron Man

_Warning: Most of these Super SEAL stories are humorous. This one isn't._

**Iron Man**

"He's not here!" the housekeeper said fearfully, cowering back from the dangerous looking men confronting her. "He's at the lake house."

She pointed. Visible in the distance, perhaps a mile away, was a small cabin on the other side of a small lake. A foot trail meandered in that direction before it disappeared into a canyon, reappearing again to skirt the lake and reach the cabin. It looked like a nice afternoon's hike, but Five-0 didn't have that long.

"How do we get there?" demanded Detective Danny Williams. He could see a truck parked beside the cabin, so there must be a road.

Slightly reassured because the angry men hadn't beaten her, the woman explained you had to go back to the main road, go around the hills and take a dirt road in to the cabin.

"That will take too long." Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett was already shedding his Kevlar vest and his shirt.

"Wait, wait!"

"Danny, it's a mile to the cabin direct, nearly ten miles going around by road," Steve said impatiently, as he continued to swap SWAT gear for commando gear.

"It's one mile across the Grand Canyon, too, but you can't cross it in four minutes!" Danny said in aggravation. "There's a cliff over there. And a lake."

The Navy SEAL made a disdainful noise. He'd seen worse.

"You're not going alone!"

"You'll just slow me down," the SEAL said with brutal honestly. "Kahana doesn't have much time."

Steve slung a rope over his bare shoulder, jammed his gun and extra clips into a waterproof bag and clipped a knife to his belt. "Take the truck and meet me there." Without another word, he started down the trail.

"Dammit, Steve. STOP!"

Steve looked back to reinforce his order and saw his partner holding out his hand.

"Give me the damned car keys!"

Sheepishness warred oddly with SEAL single-mindedness on McGarrett's face. Steve dug the keys to his Silverado out of his pocket and tossed them to his friend. As Steve ran toward the cabin, Danny swung back to the other two members of Five-0. He slapped the keys into the hand of a startled Chin Ho Kelly. As much as stomping on the accelerator would relieve his frustration, back roads weren't his métier.

"You're better at dirt and gravel," Danny explained. He hurriedly threw Steve's vest and his assault rifle into the Silverado and leaped into the passenger seat, while Kono Kalakaua dove into the backseat.

"If you warn them, we'll throw you in jail," Chin threatened the housekeeper.

She drew herself up with dignity. "I just mop floors. I don't make phone calls. There's no cell service out here anyway." She marched back inside and shut the door firmly. Mr. Iverson paid her, but he was only a renter. He wasn't a nice man and he hadn't earned any loyalty.

Chin took the wheel and raced out of the yard, spraying gravel like shrapnel behind the pickup. They'd taken the Silverado because it handled rough roads better than Danny's Camaro. Now they'd see.

Kono used a satellite phone to redirect SWAT to the new location, but she didn't know if any of them would be in time to save the kidnap victim.

Danny put his foot on Steve's Kevlar vest to stop it from bouncing around in the truck. He gripped his and Steve's assault rifles with one hand while clinging to the safety bar with the other.

"Half-armed and half-dressed. I shouldn't let Super SEAL out without a keeper," Danny growled mournfully.

* * *

><p>Steve tore over the trail like a greyhound, moving in a ground-eating lope that was fast yet controlled. Twisting ankle now would be fatal — and not for Steve.<p>

A ransom demand had been sent to Kahana's wife, a wealthy heiress. She loved her husband and was willing to pay anything to get him back, but Five-0 knew this kidnap crew had never returned a victim alive. They seemed to enjoy tormenting their victims, but within two days they got bored and killed their victims whether the ransom had been paid or not.

By the time Five-0 had tracked the kidnappers to their rented private hunting ground where gunshots would go unnoticed, the two-day deadline had already passed. This time pressure had sent Five-0 charging in before SWAT could assemble. Now it pushed Steve onward at top speed. He couldn't waste a second.

He bounded over the rutted trail until it curved to descend into the gorge. Steve ignored the switchbacks and looped his rope around a tree. With quick, economical movements, he tied the rope and began rappelling down the cliff. At the foot of the cliff, he flicked the rope away and scrambled up the far side, a lower, more sloping face.

At the top, he hit the trail again. It was smooth here and he ran hard, feeling the press of time like a spur in his side.

When he reached the edge of the small lake, he pulled off his boots and shoved them into the waterproof bag, making sure it was tightly closed again. Steve entered the water in a shallow dive. He swam quietly, but didn't try to hide his swift progress. At this point he would have welcomed being spotted, if it distracted the kidnappers from their victim.

Across the still water, Steve could hear nasty laughter and a man's voice begging for mercy.

Alive! Kahana was still alive!

Heart beating faster, Steve speeded his strokes.

His feet touched the muddy bottom and he surged out of the water. Squelching through the ooze, he pulled out his handgun and tossed the waterproof bag aside, not even bothering to retrieve his boots.

As he automatically checked the gun, the hum of an approaching engine caught his ear. A familiar black pickup raced along the access road, kicking up dirt and gravel as it plunged down the hillside road. Backup was still a couple minutes away and Steve couldn't wait.

He cautiously approached the cabin.

"Please, we'll pay anything," Kahana pleaded in a voice choked by pain.

"Don't care!" a kidnapper taunted. And a shot rang out.

"No!" The cry burst from Steve as he burst through the door. Horrified he saw Kahana's battered, slumping body tied to a chair with a bullet hole in his temple.

Three men caught in mid-laugh stood around Kahana with guns in hand.

"Police! Drop your weapons!" Steve's voice was choked with fury, guilt and grief.

He was glad — Glad! — that the kidnappers didn't obey. The shirtless, barefoot, dripping intruder did not inspire fear.

They should have looked at his face.

The Navy SEAL didn't even duck for cover. He fired three times while the surprised men were still bringing their weapons to bear. One shot each, that was all it took, until Steve stood, numb, in a room of the dead.

His mind in a fog of self-recrimination, Steve heard the Silverado slide to a halt outside and sensed his team piling through the door behind him.

* * *

><p>Danny heard a flurry of shots as Chin braked the pickup. Heart pounding, the detective was out of the truck and through the door before the dust settled.<p>

He found Steve standing over four bodies, gun dangling laxly from his hand.

"Check 'em," Danny told Chin and Kono, nodding at the four bodies. He went to check his partner. No obvious bullet holes, just a blank gaze as if looking into hell's midnight abyss. Danny gently removed the gun from Super SEAL's fingers.

"Steve?" he said gently, as if speaking to an injured child. "Steve? Talk to me, partner."

Steve's eyes traveled slowly to Danny's face, as if suction locked his gaze on Kahana's body.

"He was alive, Danny. When I got out of the water, he was still alive, but before I could get to the cabin …"

Danny's eyes filled with sympathetic tears. He knew the horror of being too late, but to be an eye blink too late was torment. For a change, Danny Williams had no words. He gripped Steve's bare arm and guided him to a seat in the truck. Away from the depressing view of corpses, Danny redressed his dazed partner, putting his shirt and boots on him as if he was a small child.

* * *

><p>Danny volunteered to talk to the victim's wife, but Steve refused to shirk his duty, refused even to take a moment to clean up. Danny sighed, but went along, though he insisted on chauffeuring Steve in the Camaro.<p>

"No! No! You said you'd save him! You promised!" Mrs. Kahana screamed. A rich young woman who truly loved her husband, she knew that her wealth had made him a target and that made her nearly insane. Steve was the target of her grief and guilt. She pounded on him, gashing his neck with her fingernails. Full of self-loathing for his failure, Steve didn't try to evade her attack, only twisting his head away when her claws flashed too close to his eyes.

When Danny realized Steve wouldn't defend himself, he grabbed the woman's wrists and spun her away. When she continued to struggle and scream, Danny slapped her, not hard enough to bruise but hard enough to catch her attention.

"Stop it!" Danny commanded. "McGarrett did not promise that we'd save your husband, only that we would do everything possible. Look at him!"

For the first time, the distraught woman saw that Steve was damp and filthy, and gaunt with sorrow. He swayed with weariness and reeked of sweat, lake slime and gunpowder.

"He did everything humanly possible and things most people can't do at all."

"But I was still too late, Danny." Steve's sad, shell-shocked voice yanked Mrs. Kahana out of her hysteria. She saw that the commander grieved as much as she did.

Seeing she was calmer, Danny released her and tapped his partner on the breastbone hard enough to make him wince. "You did everything you could."

He turned back to the young widow. "I'm sorry we couldn't save your husband, but we did avenge him," Danny said.

More composed but now unable to speak because of her choking grief, Mrs. Kahana gave him a nod, touched Steve's arm in forgiveness and understanding, and retreated into her house.

Danny grabbed his partner's arm and steered him into the passenger seat of the Camaro. "Come on. I'll buy you a Longboard."

Steve slumped into the seat.

"I'm dirty and smelly, Danny. I just want to go home and take a shower."

"All right, Iron Man, let's get you home," Danny acquiesced.

"Iron Man? That's a new one," Steve said with a shred of a smile. "Is that because I nearly ran a triathlon today?"

Danny rubbed his eye, sorry he'd said that aloud; but he wouldn't lie to his desolate friend.

"No, I was thinking of the movie," Danny said, keeping his eyes on the road. "Because Iron Man has shrapnel tearing up his heart."

Steve couldn't have described his feelings any better and he knew his partner felt the same way about failing to rescue an innocent man from callous kidnappers. Steve gave Danny's shoulder a squeeze and then the two men drove in silence, watching the streetlights pass in the darkness.


	11. Iron Man 2

_I couldn't leave Iron Man on such a sad note._

**Iron Man 2**

"I can't believe you lost the car key — MY car key!" ranted Detective Danny Williams.

"I didn't do it on purpose," Steve McGarrett defended himself. He twisted his leg to show Danny the pocket of his cargo pants. It was ripped wide open.

"The pocket got torn on a piece of junk when I tackled this lolo," Steve said. He pointed at the handcuffed suspect who was kneeling on the ground but still smirking while he watched the Five-0 officers argue.

"You tore it on some junk?" Danny repeated. "This is a JUNKYARD, Steven! Anywhere you tackled him there was bound to be junk."

"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been so bad if Choi hadn't kicked it in there," Steve protested.

Both men glowered at Choi, who suddenly didn't look so cheerful.

"I mean, it's not like it's actually lost," Steve said encouragingly. "It's right there."

Danny transferred his glower from his suspect to his partner, then both men looked at the key. It had broken loose from its key chain and lay by itself in the dirt, inside a pen, between the forelegs of the far from proverbial junkyard dog.

The massive German shepherd snarled at the strangers who had run onto his property and injured his master. Choi had knocked down the junkyard owner, who lay unconscious in the dirt, unable to call off his guard dog.

While Steve took down Choi, Danny had checked the elderly man and tucked a towel under his head, but otherwise he was afraid to move him. Danny had called for paramedics and HPD transport for the prisoner, then he found out the guard dog had the key to the Camaro.

"HPD is going to mock us — no, mock YOU! for letting a dog get the car key!" Danny exclaimed, pointing his weaponized finger at his partner.

Steve frowned at the finger, but knew his partner was right. He fingered his gun suggestively.

"No, no, no!" You are not shooting an innocent dog that's just trying to do his job. Nor are you macing, gassing or blowing up said dog. Look at him. He's beautiful!" Danny said.

The shepherd's eyes were bright and his coat thick and glossy. His powerful muscles rippled as he lunged at the fence, barking and baring his teeth at the intruders.

"Healthy teeth and gums," Steve commented dryly. "Can't you calm him down? I thought you spoke fluent dog, Beast Boy."

Danny glared. "I can talk to dogs. Right now he's saying, 'Die, you gravy-sucking humans! Come in here and I'll rip you limb from limb!' He saw us knock down his owner, Steven. He's not in a cooperating mood. Think of something else," Danny demanded. "Come on. You're a Super SEAL. You could think of six ways to kill a man using only a paperclip and dental floss."

"Depends on how long a piece of dental floss it is. And I wouldn't need the paperclip," Steve said absently, as his laser gaze scanned the junkyard. Danny began to feel hopeful.

"That's it," he encouraged. "Put your Super SEAL superpowers to good use."

Steve began to search through the junkyard.

Danny went to greet the arriving EMTs and take them to the injured junkyard owner. Then he called dispatch and told them that the suspect was in custody and they didn't have to hurry with transport.

"OK, I bought us a few more minutes," Danny told his partner who was rooting through the junkyard. "Our transport was diverted to a robbery in progress. But someone will be here soon."

Steve pounced on a pile of miscellaneous hardware and pulled out a short metal tube. It looked like a duct for a dryer vent. Steve tried it on over his arm and found it slipped on and off easily.

The dog's pen was cleverly made from recycled wrought iron gates and sections of fence bolted together in a spacious rectangle. There was space between the bars to reach an arm through (if you didn't value the appendage). It was lined with chicken wire to prevent this foolish action.

Steve held up a pair of wire clippers and his metal tube. "Distract the dog for me?"

"Just stick your hand in there, cop. That'll distract him," Choi laughed.

"You want a distraction?" Danny grabbed Choi by the throat and shoved him against the pen. The dog went crazy. Trying to get at the man who had knocked down his master, the shepherd paid no attention to Steve carefully snipping the chicken wire closest to the key.

"My hands!" the suspect begged.

Cuffed behind him, the man's hands were pressed against the chicken wire. He could feel the dog's muzzle as the animal tried unsuccessfully to bite through the wire.

"Oh, sorry," Danny said insincerely. "You're right. We wouldn't want one of your fingers to give the dog food poisoning." He spun the suspect and slammed him face first against the bars. "Is that better?"

Steve pushed the wire open and slid the tube through until the end came to rest next to the key.

Choi's face was pressed against decorative scrollwork on the bars, a solid half an inch from the dog's snapping teeth, but the suspect could still feel the angry beast's hot breath and a spray of saliva on his cheek. And now he could look straight into the toothy maw.

"While we're here, you want to tell me who hired you to break into the newspaper office?" Danny asked pleasantly. Choi talked quickly.

Moving slowly, Steve lay on the ground and slipped his arm into the armored sleeve, then lunged to grab the key.

The dog whirled fast as a striking snake and snapped at the metal sleeve. His teeth scored creases in the thin armor as Steve rolled away, yanking the pipe out of the cage.

Steve displayed the key proudly. Danny tossed Choi away from the pen to sprawl in the dirt. The dog let out a thunderous round of frustrated barks.

"Quiet, Tony," an elderly voice said firmly. "I've got a headache," the junkyard owner said while the paramedics checked him out.

Panting, the dog sat, calm now that his owner was back in charge.

An HPD patrol car pulled into the yard.

"Better get rid of the evidence, Iron Man," Danny advised his partner.

Steve shed the metal sleeve instantly and tossed it back into the junk pile.

The Five-0 officers left their shaken prisoner in the care of HPD and went back to the Camaro where Steve put the key in the ignition with a grin of triumph.

"Nice work with the distraction, but you would say you've been hanging out with me too much," Steve said.

Danny grinned. "You're a bad influence," he said. "I liked the Iron Man action with the armor and all."

"Yeah, I could do Iron Man," Steve said thoughtfully, remembering the Robert Downey Jr. movies. "But you'd have to double for me as Tony Stark."

"Why's that?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"Because I can't talk that much," Steve smirked.

Then — fully justifying his partner's faith in him — Danny ranted all the way back to headquarters.


	12. Black Widow

**Black Widow**

The Five-0 officers, along with Chin's wife, Malia, and Danny's girlfriend, Gabby, had gathered to watch the new Avengers on DVD on the big screen at headquarters. (It was after hours!)

Kono had laid a bet with Malia that the guys would start an argument about who was which character. Now the credits were rolling toward the shawarma scene and she wasn't sure whether she'd won or not, because Danny was arguing that Steve was all of them.

"Super SEAL is as good as the whole team," Danny teased.

"Thanks for the flattery, but I'm still not authorized to grant pay raises," Steve said dryly. "That's up to the governor."

Danny, being Danny, wouldn't back down from his position, even if it meant complimenting his partner.

"Look, you've got to give me Captain America," Danny begged the others. "He's named Steve!"

"Patriotic military man. Served his country," Chin said judiciously.

"And super buff," Kono added with a twinkle in her eye.

"OK, we'll give you that one," Chin decided.

"Then Hawkeye — sniper. Hello!" Danny said.

The other officers nodded. Steve was damned good with a rifle; they all knew that.

"That's a given," Kono agreed.

"And Hulk, that's obvious," said Danny, who was half a foot shorter than his partner.

"Only to you," Steve retorted, but Malia and Gabby — who weren't tall either — shook their heads emphatically. "We agree with Danny," Gabby said firmly.

"They've got you there, boss," Kono giggled.

Steve gave them a mock Hulk scowl, which made them all laugh.

"I don't know about Iron Man, Danny," Kono said. "Although Steve is awfully good with high tech and pretty inventive." She remembered Steve using dust from a vacuum cleaner to expose a latent fingerprint.

"And he's rich," Danny said, trying to not sound sour about it.

Steve had a house he'd inherited, two cars and two incomes from the Navy and Five-0. To Danny, who'd been taken to the cleaners by his ex-wife and was fighting an uphill battle to start over in overpriced Oahu, his partner seemed to be rolling in it.

None of his friends would argue this point with Danny. It would be too cruel.

"And I so deserve that raise," Danny muttered. (And Steve agreed, but state budget cuts meant the governor wasn't giving raises to anyone.)

Steve gripped his partner's shoulder. "Genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist — I can live with that."

"How about Thor?" Malia asked.

"Super buff again," Kono said.

"And overfond of thunderous explosions," Danny insisted.

Chin remembered deafening explosions in a cramped bunker and voted with Danny. He wiggled his finger in his ear and cracked. "I still get ringing in my ears."

"OK, OK, but I just can't give you the last one. I can't be Black Widow. She's a girl," Steve argued.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing," Kono said in ominous tones.

"No," Steve said hastily. "I'm just saying I don't qualify."

Danny slapped his partner on his flat, muscular chest. "He's underqualified," Danny joked, getting a groan from the rest of the party and punch in the shoulder from Gabby.

"But Steve is deadly," Kono pointed out. "He knows all those martial arts moves."

"And he's been on secret missions, maybe even assassinations," Danny said.

"I can neither confirm nor deny," Steve smirked.

"And, heaven knows, he wears a lot of black," Danny added, gesturing at Steve's current ensemble, black shirt open over a black tank top with dark gray pants and black boots.

"Black Widow," Gabby and Malia agreed.

Steve shook his head. "Still don't qualify," he said adamantly.

"Black Widow-Maker," Chin joked, then realized that wasn't really funny, when you thought about it.

Steve kept his eyes focused on the end credits, refusing to meet anyone else's gaze.

"I can neither confirm nor deny," he said somberly.

Danny couldn't let the evening end on a downer.

"OK, Steve wins this point," he conceded. "But I win the argument. One Super SEAL equals the whole team of Avengers."

Like a flash, Steve argued back that he won because "all" means "all," not five-sixths of the Avengers. The partners wrangled cheerfully while their friends laughed.

"You gotta admit, Steve would totally rock the Black Widow outfit," Danny said with mischief in his eyes.

Kono was willing to play straight man, er, woman. "You mean, a black shirt and tight black pants," she said with a lascivious grin, overtly eying her boss' butt and making everyone laugh.

"No," Danny answered. "I was thinking about the high heels and low cut dress."

And then he ran for it.


	13. Hawkeye

**Hawkeye**

"I think I'm with Danny, boss." Kono Kalakaua's voice came over the comm's earbuds. "He looks more like Hawkeye. Compact, muscular build, sandy blond hair."

"See?" Danny Williams smirked at his partner.

Steve McGarrett was sprawled on the roof of the Breeze Hotel with his sniper rifle propped on a sandbag aimed at the roof of a nearby office building. His eyes were on his target, but he felt his partner's smirk.

Danny sat back on his haunches, eyes in constant motion, scanning the surrounding buildings, watching his partner's back while Steve concentrated on protecting the governor.

Gov. Denning was due to make a speech at the Churchill Hotel. Word had come down that a hit was planned when he entered the building.

In addition to all the usual security, Five-0 was in place to try to take out the expected sniper.

Chitchat helped keep them relaxed, so Danny had revived their discussion about the Avengers movie. This time he was claiming the role of Hawkeye.

"Hawkeye. Sniper." Steve tapped the stock of his rifle. "'Nuff said."

"If that's all it takes, I could be Hawkeye," Kono pointed out. "But I'd rather be Black Widow."

"Cuz, you're just enabling them," Chin Ho Kelly complained from his post in Kono's car on the street below.

"Steve!"

The snap of Danny's voice silenced the banter. They all knew Danny had a tone and this tone was all business.

"We've got trouble. I think the sniper is after us," Danny said. "The door to the Fairacres roof just opened. I couldn't see a person, just a 'stick' that disappeared once it was through the door."

Steve pictured the scene — a man, ducking low, holding a rifle barrel vertically just long enough to get through the door before bringing it down again.

Steve had scouted all the buildings around the Churchill. He knew only the roofs would do for a shooter. None of the buildings had windows that would open and the angles were wrong for shooting through the double-paned glass. Even a high-powered bullet was likely to be deflected.

Steve had determined the office building he was aiming at had the best vantage point to take out someone entering the Churchill. So he'd taken position on the Breeze, which had the best view of the office building.

Steve's lip twitched. The Fairacres didn't have a good view of the Churchill entrance, but it had a great view of the Breeze roof.

"The man we're stalking is stalking us," he said. "Maybe this was never about Denning at all."

"Like I said, we've got trouble," Danny agreed. He didn't want to let the sniper know he'd been spotted, so Danny didn't look directly at the Fairacres. He faced Steve and watched the other roof out of the corner of his eye.

"We're moving. Taking MacKenna to Fair," Chin said. Kono, Chin and SWAT backup would stay out of sight by going behind the buildings, but it would take a few minutes. Minutes Steve and Danny might not have.

"He's moved behind the door housing — must be a name for that door hut thing," Danny muttered to himself. "He's going to the right side of the door thing — his right, our left," he clarified.

Steve envisioned it, just over his right shoulder. He slid his hand down the rifle barrel, lifting it off the sandbag so he could shift it swiftly.

"The angle's not perfect," Danny said. "He'll have to show himself to get a shot at you."

"You call it, Danny," Steve said calmly.

The Jerseyan tried to not show how tense he felt. If he was wrong about the angle, the sniper might blow Steve away while the two Five-0 officers were sitting ducks.

"Trust yourself, Hawkeye," Steve murmured.

A smile twitched the corner of Danny's mouth, then froze there when a gun barrel appeared around the corner of the door housing.

"I see the rifle. It isn't pointed our way. It's swiveling toward us. I see the point of his shoulder. Wait… Wait…"

Danny saw the sniper's ear come into view.

"Now!"

Danny threw himself backwards, out of the way, into the negligible cover of a standpipe.

Steve rolled smoothly to his side, swinging the rifle into position, sighting as he moved.

Secure in his invisibility, the sniper was startled by the explosion of motion in his scope. He twitched. His bullet went a fraction high, above Steve, behind Danny, just as the Navy SEAL squeezed his trigger.

The sniper disappeared with a spray of red and a rifle flying in the air.

Danny and Steve slipped into cover, waiting tensely for any further movement across the way. After several moments that felt like hours, Chin announced over the comm that they were coming out. He and Kono burst onto the Fairacres roof, followed by SWAT officers. They swarmed around the door housing and stopped. Chin bent.

"He's dead," Chin reported. Steve and Danny relaxed.

"Nice shot, Hawkeye," Kono complimented her boss, a grin obvious in her voice.

"Can they both be Hawkeye?" Chin asked.

"Danny's got the eye. Steve's got the shot," Kono explained.

The men in question looked at the chip that the sniper's bullet made in the roof — a chip right next to where Steve's head had been before Danny told him to move. That had been too close.

"Share?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, no problem. We can share the honors."

Steve picked up his rifle, then put his other arm across Danny's shoulders.

"Nice spotting, Hawkeye."

"Nice shooting, Hawkeye," Danny replied.

"Do this again sometime?"

"Not in a million years."

"We could ..."

"No."

"But ..."

"No."


	14. Assemble

_A/N: Not so much Super SEAL, more of a team fic, but it belongs with the Avengers theme._

**Assemble**

Dr. Max Bergman sat at a park picnic table and opened a big, colorful book, "The Art of Marvel's the Avengers." He carefully smoothed each page as he admired several photos and drawings before returning to the first page to begin reading.

"Could you ask for anything more geeky, guys," a mocking voice said behind Max. Four young men ranged themselves around the short, pudgy medical examiner. They all had tattoos showing on bare arms. They all wore tank tops and board shorts as if they were a uniform. They had been working their way down the beach, kicking sand in people's food, knocking over coolers and umbrellas, pushing around anyone smaller than they were and jeering at the rest.

When Wolf Hodgins and his Wolf Pack spotted Max alone at a table, they diverted into the beachside park and arrayed themselves around their chosen prey.

Max tried to stand, but was hindered by the concrete bench. Kim, the pack member right behind Max, knocked him back to an abrupt seat on the bench. Sitting on either side of Max, Jordy and Mikey punched his shoulders alternately, making the smaller man rock back and forth.

"Ouch! Please stop," Max said, rubbing a growing bruise.

Wolf gestured and they stopped. "You're really not much fun. Maybe I'll just take this pretty book and go. Bet I could sell it for a few bucks."

"I wouldn't do that," Max advised.

"I don't think there's anything you can say to stop me," Wolf taunted.

"Avengers assemble?" Max tried to speak firmly, but it came out more of a question.

Wolf laughed. "Like that could work." He shoved Max backwards. The ME stumbled over the bench and tumbled backwards, landing with a whoof on the thin grass.

Breathless, Max raised a hand in futile protest as Wolf reached for the pristine book with his sticky, filthy paws. Another hand intercepted his.

"Don't touch that. You haven't washed your hands," a voice chided.

A thumb and two fingers pinched firmly, almost as if taking his pulse, but the pressure made Wolf blanch. The agonizing grip drew him backwards, forcing him to his knees, and Wolf could only obey.

His posse stared in astonishment at Wolf's attacker, a tall, dark-haired man wearing board shorts and an American flag T-shirt.

Jordy leaped up as if to defend his leader, but his feet were immediately swept out from beneath him. He landed hard on his back and a sharp elbow to his solar plexus made sure he stayed down, gasping. He looked up at the slender woman who had felled him, a black-haired Asian dressed in black skinny jeans and a long-sleeved black T-shirt. She was a hottie, but the fierce look she gave Jordy scorched him in all the wrong ways.

Kim spun as if he might run, but found himself facing the muzzle of a handgun. Its blond-haired wielder wore a dark tank top. The sleeveless outfit displayed his muscular arms and a cylinder slung over his shoulder looked very much like a quiver. His blue eyes were cold as ice. Kim gulped and stood very, very still.

Mikey remembered Max saying "Avengers assemble," and now, heroes had appeared, one man wearing the flag, one woman martial artist dressed all in black and one blue-eyed blond aiming a gun with the assurance of an assassin. Timidly, Mikey looked over his shoulder. A lean-jawed, dark-haired man leaned against a palm tree tapping rapidly on an iPad. He didn't have a goatee, but his eyes held the same knowing, sardonic attitude as Iron Man's alter ego. He didn't have a visible gun, so Mikey thought he might be able to dodge around him and escape. He only got one step.

"I wouldn't, Michael Arthur Chu," Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly said flatly.

The sound of his full name was enough to make Mikey freeze.

"I have taken pictures of all of you attacking Dr. Bergman and have already identified you through facial recognition," Chin continued inexorably. "You and your friends Jordan, Kim and Herman." Wolf flinched at the sound of his despised first name. "If you try to escape, my friend there will just run you down." Chin nodded at Commander Steve McGarrett who grinned like a hound promised a game of fetch. "And all you'll do is add resisting arrest to your list of so-far-minor crimes. I want to remind you that none of you are juveniles any longer, so the shorter the list of crimes the better you will like it. But it's up to you. Still planning on running?"

"No sir," Mikey said in defeat.

Without taking his gun off the suspects, Detective Danny Williams crouched beside Max. "You all right, babe?"

Max nodded, though he was unable to speak. Danny heard the wheezing and patted his friend's shoulder in understanding. "Inhale slowly, then inhale again," he advised. It was just a week ago Tuesday Danny had crashed through a window and landed on his back hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

Jordy also seemed slightly dazed by his crashing fall. "Geez, they are the Avengers."

The Five-0 teammates had heard Max say "Avengers assemble" and saw the characters arrayed on the cover of the book. They looked at each other and grinned when they got it.

"Stay," Steve told Wolf, switching to a left-handed grip. As long as Wolf stayed perfectly still, the pain was minimal, but when he tried to pull away, agonizing lightning shot up his arm.

Steve drew his weapon and nodded at Danny. "You want to book 'em, Hawkeye?" he said with a smirk.

Danny rolled his eyes, but replied, "Anything you say, Captain."

"That's commander. Still a few years before I make captain," Steve muttered.

"You got this, Widow?" Danny asked Kono.

She drew her weapon looking every inch as deadly as Natasha Romanoff. "No problem, brah."

"I've called HPD," Chin contributed, gesturing with his iPad before he set it aside and pulled out his handgun (spoiling the Tony Stark illusion, alas).

Danny holstered his gun and shrugged out of the cylindrical wine carrier on his back.

"Max, ever handcuff anyone?" he asked.

The ME brightened. "May I?"

"You may," Danny replied in the same indulgent tone he'd use to answer his daughter.

He sent Max to collect handcuffs from his friends. "Go around behind. Don't get between Chin and the suspects." Then Danny demonstrated on Mikey the proper way to handcuff a prisoner. "Now you try it," Danny said when they got to Kim. Max fumbled a bit, but got the cuffs in place. "A little tighter," Danny instructed. "You don't want him to slip out."

"I don't want to hurt him," Max said.

"See, that's manners," Danny snarled in Kim's ear. He jammed the cuffs closed, tight enough to pinch but not enough to cut off circulation.

"Hey, that hurts," Kim protested. "What did you say about manners?"

"We go to a police academy to unlearn ours," Danny answered. He shoved Kim down to an awkward seat on the bench.

Danny and Max came around to Steve, who had Wolf well trained by then. "Just two fingers, Cap. I must admit I'm impressed," Danny said.

"Super strength," Steve said with a straight face. "I could restrain him with one finger," he bragged, then he made a face. "But he probably wouldn't survive," he admitted.

"Well, I don't think shoving Max is a capital crime just yet, but we'll get back to you later."

"And I would just as soon not go to work on my day off," the ME added.

"Duly noted," Steve said solemnly.

"Let him go so we can cuff him," Danny said.

"Don't move!" Steve told his prisoner sternly. He let go of Wolf who meekly put his hands behind his back.

Steve waved his empty left hand at Danny. "No fingers!" he mouthed.

Danny had to turn away to hide a smile.

"I've got this," Max said confidently. Danny gestured him to go ahead.

Max jammed the cuffs closed, a hint of vengeance in his eyes. Thoroughly cowed, Wolf winced but didn't protest.

By the time they'd finished cuffing Jordy, HPD had arrived to take the perps into custody.

"I know they're not the Avengers," Mikey said to Max in a quiet voice. "But who are they?"

"They're Five-0. That's worse than the Avengers for you," Max said in as menacing a voice as a short, pudgy comic book geek can manage.

"Why's that?" Mikey asked fearfully.

In his best Dr. Doom voice, Max answered, "Because they're real."

* * *

><p><em>AN: Danny's wine carrier — I swear they look like quivers — has a bottle of ice tea in it. No wine in a public park. And now I've run out of 5-0/Avengers ideas. Pout._


	15. More Powerful Than

**Merry Christmas!**

* * *

><p><strong>More Powerful Than …<strong>

"Avast, lubbers!"

Homeless drug addict Kenny Jessup had his inevitable psychotic break with reality when he saw a troop of sailors waving swords and marching toward his hidden nest in the back of a small theater.

Fascinated with pirates since he was a child, the man's fragile sanity snapped and he moved to attack.

Gathered for dress rehearsal, the children's choir had crowded around their director when he lovingly opened a long case to reveal two gleaming military sabers. The man had promised the kids a peek at the real sabers that had modeled for the papier-mache ones that were part of their costumes. He never knew keeping a promise would be so painful.

As he crept up on the enemy, Jessup's eyes were caught by the shiny swords He pounced, snatching up one and thrusting it into the director's chest, sending the youngsters scattering toward the back of the stage.

Half-erected scenery blocked the usual routes backstage and the crazy man with the long sharp knife blocked the steps down to the empty seating area.

While the ranting, pirate wannabe menaced the 7-year-old sailors; the wounded director clawed his cellphone out of his pocket.

"Pali Auditorium. There's a crazy man with a saber."

"A what, sir?" the 911 operator hadn't heard the gasping man properly.

"A sword!" the man hissed. "He stabbed me and now he's threatening the kids."

* * *

><p>When Steve McGarrett heard the dispatcher say an address just two blocks away, he spun the wheel of the Camaro, sending the silver car into a screeching U-turn. His partner slammed into the passenger door, barely getting his hand up to protect his head. Danny Williams gripped the safety bar as the car's braking spin threw him forward then back again. Unlike usual, Danny didn't complain about his friend's wild driving. The report "children in danger" meant the faster the better.<p>

Despite their proximity, Sgt. Duke Lukela and a two-man squad car beat them to the scene. The three uniformed officers attracted the attention of the madman. He paraded up and down, haranguing them in cliché pirate speak. He continued flailing with the saber seeming to half-know how to handle it.

"He must have had some lessons at some time," Steve commented. "He's holding it correctly."

"And you know this how?" Danny asked curiously.

"It's a military saber, Danny." Steve answered with only half his attention. His eyes were scanning the entire room — the frightened children in their adorable sailor hats, the injured man lying on the stage clutching his side and panting, the saber case still on the small table, the empty seats in the auditorium, the blockading scenery stacked in back. The SEAL's gaze tracked up to the catwalks and lighting bars overhead.

Danny did not like the look on his friend's face. He started to say something, but was distracted by the arrival of Chin Ho Kelly, Kono Kalakaua and four more uniformed officers.

Duke and another officer backed away from the stage as the reinforcements distracted Jessup and sent him into a new round of frenzied ranting.

"What's going on, Duke?" Chin asked his friend.

"The perp's name is Kenny Jessup," Duke answered. He gestured at the officer with him. "Mendez recognized him from the streets."

"He's homeless, sleeps wherever he can find a place. The businesses complain he sneaks into back rooms whenever he can, sleeps, steals a little, all pretty minor up until this," Mendez said.

"So he sneaked in here to sleep and something about little kids in sailor costumes made him think he was Captain Jack Sparrow?" Danny said incredulously.

"Apparently," Duke agreed.

"It's going to be hard to get close to him with that sword," Kono said. "Safest to just shoot him, but …"

The men all nodded. Any way you sliced it, shooting up from the floor or sniping from the catwalks, the children were in the line of fire.

* * *

><p>"Hold the fort, Danny," Steve said jauntily. "Do what you do best."<p>

"Why? What are you…?" Danny turned hastily, but Steve was already gone. "Where'd he go?" Danny demanded of the others. Chin and Kono shook their heads, but Officer Mendez pointed toward the backstage area.

"I told him it was blocked," Mendez said. "He just … smiled and left."

"He smirked, didn't he?" Danny said. "You can say it. He smirked."

Mendez nodded.

"What's he up to?" Kono wondered.

"Something tricky," Chin answered. "Don't worry, Danny. Steve knows what he's doing."

"I know," Danny said in aggravation. "I just wish he'd give us a heads up! All his little surprises are going to give me an ulcer."

Chin clapped him on the shoulder in sympathy.

"Look, up there!" Mendez pointed at the ceiling.

Danny smacked his forehead before he even looked up. A shadowy figure ran along a roof beam as if it was a sidewalk and then leaped across empty space to a metal ladder. He ascended quickly and vanished into the deeper shadows of the catwalks above the stage.

"Look, up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Super SEAL," Danny grumbled to Chin and Kono.

"What?" asked Mendez, who was new to HPD, though he had served six years on the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

"It's McGarrett," Chin explained. "He's a Navy SEAL and he has an … innovative approach to situations."

"Innovative? Is that Hawaiian for insane?" Danny asked rhetorically. (He knew the word for crazy was "lolo.") "And don't keep staring up," he ordered the officer. "You'll give away his position. We need to keep the crazy's eyes on us. Do what I do best," he grumbled under his breath.

Jessup hadn't really been paying attention to the plainclothes detectives. He was leaping here and there, brandishing his saber at anyone in uniform, including the cowering 7-year-olds. When the swinging blade knocked the sailor hat off a curly headed little girl with tears running down her cheeks, Danny charged to the edge of the stage doing what Steve said he did best — yelling.

"Leave that child alone, you dimwit!"

The venom in the detective's voice made the sword-wielding pirate flinch back. Then he remembered himself and lunged forward, but Danny dodged, taunting Jessup all the time until the lunatic's attention was totally focused on him.

Chin and Kono took advantage of the distraction to move to the edge of the stage where they could reach the wounded man. They grabbed his outstretched arms and pulled him off the stage. He grunted in pain when his legs dropped off the edge, but he thanked them for the rescue.

"But what about the kids," he said.

"Working on it," Kono said. She glanced up, just in time to see a familiar figure swing out of the darkness.

Everyone (except Danny) gaped as McGarrett swooped down on a rope and dropped onto the stage behind Jessup, snatching the second saber out of its box. Danny didn't gape because, frankly, he'd been expecting it.

"Avast, ye scurvy dog!" Steve roared theatrically. "Leave my crew alone. Face Captain McGarrett, if you dare!"

Jessup spun away from Danny to face this new threat. Danny and Chin launched Kono onto the stage. She hustled the children to the edge of the stage so the men could lift them down. While the Five-0 duo and Mendez scooped the young sailors to safety, Kono stood between them and the battling pirates. She had her gun ready to shoot Jessup if he made one more move toward the children, but his attention was fixated on Steve — and it needed to be.

Super SEAL had some serious saber skills! (Say that three times fast.)

Danny shook his head in admiration. Steve was surprising him again. The detective plucked the last child out of danger and turned him over to Duke.

"Now finish this, McGarrett!" Danny called.

Actually, that was easier said than done. Because Jessup didn't have much real saber training, Steve couldn't predict what he'd do. The commander fought a defensive battle, until he familiarized himself with Jessup's offbeat style; then Steve attacked. He twisted the sword out of Jessup's hand and then twisted Jessup's hand behind his back. In a moment, the cuffs were on and Jessup was on his knees, still raving in pirate talk.

"Duke, you'd better take him to the hospital," Steve said.

"Right, Steve."

Steve went to check on the director. He had a nasty slash across his chest, but the blade hadn't penetrated the breastbone.

"Another sign Jessup didn't know what he was doing," Steve commented. "You've got to stab higher or lower for a killing blow. The breastbone isn't a good target."

"Well, thank heaven for inexperienced pirates," Danny said. "And how do you know so much about sabers?"

"It's an Olympic sport, you know," Steve said.

Danny just gave him a look that said, you didn't answer the question.

"OK, when Dad sent me away to military school, I couldn't get on the football team because the season had already started." After all these years, that still rankled, going from quarterback and team captain in Hawaii to off the team on the mainland. "They didn't have a pool, either. I had to take at least two PE courses, so I ran track and signed up for fencing, which meant saber in that semester. I only stuck with it until I had a chance to walk on the football team," Steve finished with a shrug.

"It came back fast when you picked up that sword," Danny praised his friend.

Star-struck, Mendez came over to meet McGarrett. OK, the commander's capture wasn't exactly textbook police work, but it was awesome!

"Steve, this is Officer Mendez …"

"Oliver," the officer interjected.

"…Oliver Mendez," Danny modified smoothly. "Oliver, this is Commander Steve McGarrett aka Super SEAL."

Mendez shook Steve's hand eagerly. "Commander, that was amazing!"

"Uh, thank you … Oliver." Steve was a little disconcerted by the adulation.

Danny, Chin and Kono didn't try to hide their grins.

Duke passed the group, pushing Jessup before him. The suspect was still babbling about sailors trying to steal his pirate treasure.

"That's why a man was stabbed and all those kids were traumatized? To protect an imaginary pirate treasure?" Kono asked in disgust.

"He's lolo," Chin agreed.

"Did you say 'loco'?" Mendez asked.

"I said 'lolo,'" Chin enunciated clearly. "That's Hawaiian for loco."

"Lolo or loco, that man's motive was completely crazy," Kono stated.

"It's a good thing Commander McGarrett flew in like Superman to save the day," Mendez said, remembering Danny's "It's a bird. It's a plane." comments.

Danny lost it. He began laughing so hard, he had to feel behind him for a seat in the auditorium.

"What is your problem?" Steve demanded.

"Super SEAL," Danny gasped. He gestured, describing Steve's swooping path from the catwalk. "Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound. More powerful than a loco motive." He grinned up at his friends. "A loco motive," he emphasized.

Mendez laughed. Kono groaned. Chin shook his head. The constipated look on Steve's face was fair revenge for Super SEAL's ulcer-causing antics.

Steve pointed at the red-faced detective. "You're the one who's loco."

But Danny just laughed.

* * *

><p><em>AN: I tried for months to think of a train story to go with more powerful than a "locomotive." This is much better. Or worse, depending on your proclivity for puns._


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